Recommended Previously Featured Empathy Promoters
We invite you to share recommendations for people or organizations you know who are promoting empathy.
Empathy: The first step to peace in our schools, communities, nations, world
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Featured Empathy Promoter
Check out a wonderful book for young adults by David LaRochelle, Absolutely Positively Not.
Sixteen-year-old Steven DeNarski doesn’t know if he’ll pass his driver’s test or if he’ll ever understand his parents, but there’s one thing he’s sure of: he’s absolutely, positively NOT gay. He sets out to prove it by collecting photos of girls in bikinis, sitting at the jock table at school, and dating like crazy. “Absolutely” takes a humorous look at the life of a regular boy who’s finding out what it takes to be a real man.
This delightful book won the Sid Fleischman Humor Award. Whether you are gay or straight, sixteen or sixty, you will enjoy the endearing characters and the story of Steven’s path to self-acceptance. David LaRochelle says that Steven is based on himself. He says, “Like Steven I was scared to death that somebody might discover I was attracted to men, and I did all sorts of ridiculous things to prove to myself, and the world, that I was absolutely, positively not gay. And like Steven, when I finally decided to be honest, I was a much happier person.” (from Daphne Lee’s interview: bit.ly/lTZL32)
In a recent interview David had for the Red Balloon Bookshop, he was asked, "If you were a superhero, what super power would you like to have?" He answered, “I would like to have the power to give empathy to others. It's hard to hate someone once you get to know them and get a glimpse of what his/her life is like.” David added, “One of my favorite quotes is: ‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.’ The older I get, the more truth I find in this sentiment.”
To find out more about David LaRochelle, check out his Website at davidlarochelle.net
Check out this fascinating video clip from noted author and social thinker Jeremy Rifkin, who asks, "Can we reach biosphere consciousness and global empathy in time to avert planetary collapse?"
