As
if empathy was a pill you could swallow,
a
module you implant.
50 CCs of empathy were delivered to
the patient.
Along with 100 mg of “Leadership”, a
dose of “Resilience,” and 100% his Daily Value of “Thoughtful
Reflection on his Place in the
Universe.”
Several signs near these books tell me
they are published by Harvard University.
(I
have heard that people are more likely
To
deliver electric shocks to strangers
If
the person telling them to
Is
wearing a lab coat.)
Do not buy these books.
If you want to become more empathetic,
you
must watch and listen to people.
And
more importantly
you
must watch and listen to yourself.
Read books (real books)
not
knowing what you will get from them until you do.
Look out windows.
Go for long walks.
Take suggestions from the people you
trust.
And most of all, you need to practice
every
single day.
And
expect to fail.
You are trying to do something
impossible.
There are no shortcuts.
*
We know the sky is empty
But
we still look up
Transfixed
by beauty that we don’t understand
Or
expect to
There are scientists who say
Music
is like cheesecake
Pleasurable
and pointless
And
wonder and awe have been explained away
Reduced
to mere superstition.
There
is no point to any of these things
If
they do not help us survive.
Well, then,
isn’t
life pointless?
Maybe, but I’ll take the pointlessness
Of
a stained-glass window
Over
the sterility of science any day.
The challenge of modern life is
To
believe in the existence and the dignity of the human soul
Without
having to believe in its permanence.
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