Compassion Challenged
A friend has taken to shooting birds at Hummers. He says he can’t help himself. He knows it’s an irrational reaction to a trivial irritant, but it’s the straw that breaks his back.
My straw is cell phones.
The other day in the supermarket, a young woman was steering her cart badly, blocking both aisles at the intersection of cream cheese and frozen pizzas.
When I saw that she was chattering away on a cell phone and relishing being the center of her own little cell phone universe, my mean streak made me want to slap her.
My creative streak made me want to take off my shoe and put it up to my ear and go "blah, blah, blah" to mock her, like another friend used to do.
My good streak tried to ignore her self-absorbed obliviousness, because several enlightened people say an Answer is compassion.
Unfortunately, I need a big boost in my capacity for this illusive virtue, and I’m not getting enough of it from fellow strangers in supermarkets, or from my leaders.
Imagine the Mayor has lost her job, has no money in savings, no immediate family, and only poor friends and relations. Imagine her parents were uneducated, and did not have the overachiever gene to pass on to her. Imagine, in fact, that the notion of "making your mark" was beyond their comprehension. To them, survival was success.
Could the Mayor then understand homelessness and feel compassion for the homeless? Could she then evict poor people from a trailer park for their own good because it was so far below code?
Imagine the Governor in a similar situation. And suppose his parents had not made big oil money and had no insider experience with government secrecy. Could he then truly care about maimed veterans being jerked around by the VA as usual?
I’m trying to imagine the young lady in the supermarket without a cell phone to play with. And I’m thinking she might connect with her fellow human beings—at least well enough to pay attention to her driving.
My straw is cell phones.
The other day in the supermarket, a young woman was steering her cart badly, blocking both aisles at the intersection of cream cheese and frozen pizzas.
When I saw that she was chattering away on a cell phone and relishing being the center of her own little cell phone universe, my mean streak made me want to slap her.
My creative streak made me want to take off my shoe and put it up to my ear and go "blah, blah, blah" to mock her, like another friend used to do.
My good streak tried to ignore her self-absorbed obliviousness, because several enlightened people say an Answer is compassion.
Unfortunately, I need a big boost in my capacity for this illusive virtue, and I’m not getting enough of it from fellow strangers in supermarkets, or from my leaders.
Imagine the Mayor has lost her job, has no money in savings, no immediate family, and only poor friends and relations. Imagine her parents were uneducated, and did not have the overachiever gene to pass on to her. Imagine, in fact, that the notion of "making your mark" was beyond their comprehension. To them, survival was success.
Could the Mayor then understand homelessness and feel compassion for the homeless? Could she then evict poor people from a trailer park for their own good because it was so far below code?
Imagine the Governor in a similar situation. And suppose his parents had not made big oil money and had no insider experience with government secrecy. Could he then truly care about maimed veterans being jerked around by the VA as usual?
I’m trying to imagine the young lady in the supermarket without a cell phone to play with. And I’m thinking she might connect with her fellow human beings—at least well enough to pay attention to her driving.
posted by John Marsh at 3:19 PM
1 Comments:
I think people put themselves in this self absorbed delusional state to better deal with reality. What they don't realize is that there are other ways to deal with reality while being aware of your surroundings at the same time. Medications for one. Personally I think if you're not on some kind of anti-depressant and you live on this planet, there's something seriously wrong with you - I say half jokingly :)
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