I F

I   F

P o w e r f u l      W o r d,

isn’t it?

Maybe it’s not really a lie we tell ourselves.      .      .

or maybe it’s the worst one we actually can’t ever help but to tell?

If we could undeniably tell what another felt just by looking at them, it would make all the difference in the world

U  N  L  E  S  S

It didn’t.      .      .      .

Maybe it’s just all merely about

d  i  s  t  i  n  c  t  i  o  n  s ?

Empathy is the capacity to feel deeply for someone despite the fact you don’t actually share the same experience.

Sympathy is the capacity to feel deeply for someone because you actually do share the same experience.

Compassion, sympathy and empathy all have to do with passion

—f     e     e     l     i     n     g–

for another person because you identify with suffering.      .      .      .

Oh come one…this is almost beginning to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher:

“Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

She lived four houses down the street from us.

She committed suicide.

It’s been a whole year now

and her house has been cleaned out, garaged saled and sold

now newly moved into.  .   .

Moot point, huh?

E s p e c i a l l y    s i n c e

I never knew her name, never talked to her even one time.

I certainly never shook her hand or heard the sound of her voice

as she told a story about herself or someone in her family.

I passed her only a few times when we were both in our cars and we only slight-hand-waved each other.      .      .

B     u     t,

but that was it.

I wonder.      .      .

I wonder if just by looking at her,

both of us keeping the shade of our truest identities behind our respective sunglasses,

but somehow looking past that and really seeing her,

I could have had a clue that this was going to happen.      .      .

that she was going to kill herself and not actually be found for a couple of days.      .      .     ?

I wonder even more, just by looking at her and having  T H A T   hint.      .      .if,

if I would have done something.      .      .even a mere:

“Hello, how are you?”

Maybe John Steinbeck was right:

“YOU    ONLY    UNDERSTAND    PEOPLE    IF    YOU    FEEL    THEM    IN    YOURSELF”

Maybe it’s time that we see someone different in the mirror because someone different is standing in front of it?

I f

I  F

I      F

Truly looking at someone and absolutely knowing how they actually felt, would it really make a difference or would it just be another intellectual debate about the differences between Empathy, Sympathy and Compassion and who shows, does them the best?

I wonder.      .      .      .