Expanding Our Empathy
It is tempting to think that one is expanding one’s empathy for others by, for example, listening to a podcast by a person of color and extrapolating from that to assure oneself that one...
Tagged: empathy
Sharing the Positive Human Vibe
It feels like people often think about empathy in terms of understanding other people’s pain, suffering or hardships. And that is an important component. The #MeToo movement asks us to listen to women’s experiences...
Empathy for Every Soul
As we come to the end of a very difficult year, 2020 stands out as a time when we lost an extraordinary number of souls who should not have departed this Earth this year....
Respect and Empathy
I have been thinking lately about how empathy goes hand-in-hand with respect. You can’t really say you have empathy for someone, or for a group of someones, if you don’t give them the respect...
Empathy in the Time of Coronavirus
Has the pandemic increased or decreased empathy in our lives and our world? As usual, the answer seems to be, both. At the local level, within our own neighborhoods and communities, we are seeing...
The two sides of empathy
The empathy symbol stands for people reaching out to each other and opening up to feel what the other is feeling, and to understand the experiences of the other. But the “other” can be...
Tribalism
We hear a lot these days about how tribalism is increasing–us vs them, reds vs blues, etc. Along with this, we hear calls from governmental leaders, including the president of the United States, to...
Empathy in 1847
A friend shared on Facebook a beautiful story of empathy from one oppressed people for another. The BBC told about how Choctaw people in the southern U.S., in 1847, heard about the Irish people...
Cross-cultural empathy here and now
A recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune tells about a brilliant idea that promotes understanding between cultures. And not only that, it’s easy and cheap. Rather than sending teenagers abroad to live with a...
Outpouring of Support for Immigrants
It is very heartening to see the outpouring of support for immigrants, after Donald Trump’s ban on immigration from several Muslim countries. We have also seen, recently, people from other cultures and countries being denigrated,...