MEGA 2020

Empathy is a human super power.

Empathy - noun - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
I think right now the most powerful tool we have in our love kit is empathy. When we practice empathy it forces us into another person’s shoes and it gives us a glimpse into what their world may be like, it helps us understand how a situation or circumstance might make them feel... it takes our imagination to be able to do this. Lucky for us humans we were blessed with imagination in droves but some of us just don’t use it or we were just never taught how to channel it well. But it’s always there when we’re truly ready to use it.
Honestly, I wish we could encapsulate empathy so that doctors and therapists could prescribe it to people who can’t quite harness that part of their imagination... but unfortunately we can’t... we have to practice & teach empathy. We have to routinely step outside ourselves and look at a person’s world & circumstances from their perspective and share their feelings—it’s something we can get better at if we try but empathy is ultimately a choice.
What we’ve been witnessing over the past few days all over this county is an explosion of emotion, pain and sorrow because another police officer killed a black man in broad daylight. This country’s lack of empathy over these kind of murders has been palpable for quite some time—our leaders and so many other people are living their lives without acknowledging that these atrocities are happening in their backyard at the hands of the people whose duty it is to serve & protect all citizens. This lack of empathy has basically been a ticking time bomb & at some point, it was bound to explode. When our leaders call the people that are trying to peacefully draw attention to these consistent murders “sons of bitches” or “thugs” etc... that doesn’t only show a severe lack of empathy, that demonstrates to many a deep-seated racism and a disdain for a black person’s existence. This racism and lack of empathy is not sustainable.
We’re going to need an empathy revolution. We’re going to need to learn to harness our imaginations to share & understand the feelings of our black friends and neighbors harder than ever before because once empathy is truly activated, compassionate action is the most logical response. We’re going to need to stop getting so insanely upset about HOW people are protesting injustice and use all of our brain muscle and imagination to empathetically understand WHY they are protesting... we can’t expect our government leaders to do this for us or to teach us how to do this, they truly suck at it. It’s up to you and me, we have to practice it and practice it hard. we have to be confident in knowing that if we use empathy and stand up for justice in our own communities that we can truly begin to heal our culture’s gaping wounds. Empathy is one of our most radical tools for change and I am going to make it my life’s mission to creatively use my imagination to practice it, teach it to the next generation and to live it as much as possible. Will you join me?
#MEGA #MEGA2020