Empathy...that's the key @matbaker!! If everyone had the ability to simply stand in someone else's shoes and feel what they feel...well just imagine how different our world would be! Cheers!
(and I see you're a steemit blogger..hooray...me too; quite a great group of people hey??!)
Thanks Lynne. It's hard though. I saw a gun supporter suggest yesterday that the teacher in Florida who sacrificed his life to save some children died like "cattle" and that he should have died fighting. What an appalling thing to say. Empathy is in short supply.
Yes, I am very happy to have been embraced by the Steemit Bloggers! @Jaynie is awesome, and everyone has been so welcoming.
Wow...I've come to realise that the problems in the world can often be explained by "lack of empathy". People have forgotten how to stand in someone else's shoes and feel what they are feeling. It's so sad really...and I'm not sure how it came to be!
Yes I know. Sometimes though, something happens to remind us of the inherent good in people. I was struck by a story a while ago. A Scottish boxer called James Murray died in the ring in the mid 90s. His father - a gruff, working class Glaswegian - said of his opponent that day, Drew Docherty (in effect, the man who killed his son):
...and in doing so, went a long way to removing the guilt that Docherty must have felt. He didn't have to do that. He was heartbroken and had lost his son, but in his grief he realised how Docherty was feeling, and sought to help him.
That's beautiful. It made me cry like a baby when I read it.
It's a shitty world, and we see lots of awful things, and stuff like this shows that people can be wonderful.
I love the way you think! We need more people in the world like you @matbaker and more people like James Murray's father. That's a beautiful story. And yes you're right, the world is full of wonderful people...I'm an eternal optimist. Besides, it takes way more energy to be angry than it does to smile :) Cheers!