Circles of compassion
Kindness has become a business and woe betide anyone who doesn’t get with the programme.
It’s much the same with grace, humility and forgiveness.
Hell, I’m surprised we’ve not got a national day and a ribbon to celebrate each and every one.
Sorry if that sounds offensive but since when did a few days to celebrate a few things become an outpouring of weeks and months, which has become an industry in and of itself?
I churlishly remarked on a Teams call, having been summoned to attend another national day for something I can’t now remember, that we need a national day to celebrate dogs. I got, as you can probably imagine, a slightly squiffy look, meaning either there was already one but more likely there was no or little comparison between what humans deemed important and what was worth celebrating (…man’s best friend still holds true, doesn’t it?)
Anyhow, what of compassion?
The etymology tells me:
Latin compassio is an ecclesiastical loan-translation of Greek sympatheia (see sympathy). Sometimes in Middle English it meant a literal sharing of affliction or suffering with another. An Old English loan-translation of compassion was efenðrowung.
The dictionary definition is slightly fuller:
Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.
Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help. Altruism, in turn, is the kind, selfless behavior often prompted by feelings of compassion, though one can feel compassion without acting on it, and altruism isn’t always motivated by compassion.
But are we?
Suffering together?
About what?
…do I need to ask?
The 6th mass extinction, i.e. the Anthropocene?
Some of us (I’m not aware of anyone in my direct circle who opines on the subject) are but there doesn’t feel much compassion for all of sentient life and how it’s been wiped off the face of the earth with increasing alacrity.
Other humans, yes, and right now it’s needed more than ever!
More than ever!
What does this say about us?
I’d tenderly offer a little reflection and say “Out of sight, out of mind”.
Or to put it another way, if you can’t see it, you can’t feel it.
I mean if someone tells you that a billion animals/insects/fish have gone instinct, how do you even compute let alone delve the depths of your soul for a tearful, grief-filled reflection?
You probably don’t.
But that’s what I wake up feeling every single day. In fact, even this last night, all I could think about as it was lashing down with rain for the nth time was the small birds, the hedgehogs and the sheep who were having to endure another miserable night.
Some might say I’m cold, or even indifferent to humans and humanity. Or that I’m misanthorpic and I wouldn’t demur on both counts but I can’t feel that we’ve lost connection, a deep, spiritual valance with the natural world, made worse or exacerbated by that pernicious evil called globalisation.
Again, as I reflect on my writing I can’t help feel that everything is written from an anthropocentric perspective. Imagine it otherwise.
What?
Imagine writing from the position of a blue whale, or fox, or badger or an eagle.
I wonder how that would inform our language and circles of compassion?
Blessings and much love, Julian