EMPATHY
Empathy is one major trait that as a collective human race we are lacking. To Me, Empathy is the ability to look at a situation from another person’s point of view and feel, or attempt to feel what they are feeling or perceived to be feeling. In Layman terms just put yourself in someone’s else’s shoes. When looking At Empathy, we see it as the cause of many problems in the world. It may not be the main Root of all those problems but it is definitely involved, it’s almost like if you order a pizza from, let’s say PaPa Johns(Who still goes to Papa Johns, soo 2017), and you pick all the toppings off and eat them. Empathy would represent the toppings and the other problems would represent the crust but at the end of the day, a pizza is only as good as its toppings. ( Unless you’re a weirdo and eat margarita Pizza). So empathy exemplifies the core problems just as toppings exemplifies pizza. So this weekend after a fun night downtown, Me and my brother and his girlfriend return to the parking lot to their car window smashed in, glass everywhere, and everything in the back and front seat stolen. ( * Lesson learned, Never leave bags visible or invest in some tinted windows.) And you know that feeling when you just got GOT and at first, it’s almost surreal and then you just stand there for a minute thinking. So after a minute of that feeling we began doing the “ My Car got broken into starter pack” which includes calling the police, attempting to clean out the glass and still stood there puzzled. Then another car rolled up behind us asking us if we were leaving in which we replied yes but in a sec. Long story short the car behind us got inpatient fast and made an unethical decision and decided to pull guns out and pretty much get the parking spot by threatening to shoot us. ( Was it really worth all of this, for a parking spot??) Obviously, I was terrified and heart beating fast as it was my first time seeing a gun up close and I was able to run away and later meet up with my brother who drove away. Luckily we were safe, and they probably had no intention of shooting us and were just doing a scare tactic but nowadays you never really know. It almost sounds like it could be a Bad headline. It was frankly kind of sad because they were young Black men and playing into the implicit attribution that many Americans have on young black men. Reflecting on the situation in an optimistic mindset I was thinking it was almost a good thing we got guns pulled out on us because in a split second we went from frustrated about our last and damaged items to happy and thankful we were alive. It put things in PERSPECTIVE. It seems like the main root of this issue they had besides LACK of patience was Lack of Empathy and total disregard for the situation that we were in. And you could chalk it to just dealing with a bad person in a bad place at a bad time but in reality, that same behavior is prevalent in many ways in our culture(most of the time in less violent ways). Was what they were doing in malice intent or were they just conforming to the mindset of society? And even as a generation, I feel the vast majority of people that are egocentric and have an “only worried about my agenda” mindset.
On the flip side, some people who practice empathy on the regular get taken advantage of. For empathy to reach its highest potential it has to be a two-way street. The next day I am on my way home and took a flight to Chicago to then take a greyhound bus to Indiana. So i arrive in Chicago and board the bus. When boarding the bus, I do what I usually do, put my headphones on and listen to music with the focus and intensity I would before going into a prize boxing match. So I get on the bus and stick to my strategy and sit in the middle of the bus( If you go all the way in the back 9/10 times you encounter sketchy people and if you go to the front 9/10 times you encounter sketchy people.) So as I sit down I make myself comfortable while the seats are filling up I see older women walk on the bus. She looked like she could be borderline crazy and her clothes were stained. We made eye contact and I politely smiled at her and she sat behind me. ( Oh great, now I’m going to have to be on the look out for the next 4 hours) when she sat down she carried the aura of Erykah Badu’s Bag Lady and you could tell she been through a lot in her life. Throughout the first hour of the bus ride, you could hear her grunting and making the occasional “MM Hmm” sound, She was making it soo loud that I could hear it over my music. The 2nd hour goes by and I begin to try to get comfortable and I put my arms in my sleeve, as soon as I did this she tapped me on the back and asked me if I was cold. I wasn’t cold but in a spontaneous reaction replied “Yes.” She then asked if I would want her blanket, stating, “ I know how it feels to be cold” to which I considerately replied with “no thank you but thanks for offering” then I turned around and attempted to try to sleep. Five minutes later I feel something on my body and smell the smell of strong cigs, I open my eyes and a blanket is on me. At this point, I am kind of grossed out and slightly frustrated but then I thought WoW. Here I was yesterday, repetitively asking myself the same question, Why can’t more people practice Empathy? And not that long later an old lady is showing me empathy, and probably too much. In her mind she was probably thinking this guy is cold, he’s going to love this cover but she failed to think that her cover reeked of cigs and maybe he didn’t want to be wrapped up in that for 2 hours. As for Empathy, I guess beggars can’t be choosers. where is the fine line of Empathy? Which situation do you think was worse/ would you rather be in? Lack of Empathy or way too much Empathy (No Means No!)?
