Cliff's Blog
A feel-good morning microblog of 10-second takeaways offering advice, insights, and inspiration to brighten your outlook and give you a lift.
Empathy When It’s Hardest
Empathy is my ninja power. And yours too, if you want it to be.
Empathy is the way into anyone’s heart. It allows you to stand in their shadow and feel the way the wind hits them. You can witness the healing of a soul when you stand in that place. And you can be part of that healing.
We empathize with friends, loved ones, those with unwarranted wounds. It’s a human thing and it always works, for everyone involved.
But empathy isn’t always easy. In fact, when it’s not easy is when it’s most powerful.
When we’re at our best, in full ninja regalia, an enlightened state if you will, we experience empathy for people on the other side of humanity, not just the slain but the ones holding the rifle and the gavel. We simultaneously love the abuser and the abused, the oppressor and the oppressed. This doesn’t mean we’re aligned with evil, rather confronting it and challenging it with our greatest weapon.
When we stand in this space with our feet firmly planted, we’re reminded that there are a cause and effect to everything, that the notion of the hero and the villain only perpetuates conflict, like a child’s comic book with its endless sequels: clever incarnations of the same tension between the same people.
There is real power in EMPATHY at this level, a fierce, unrelenting LOVE that works diligently against HATE, CONTEMPT, DISGUST, and the others, that converts gnarled barbed wire into chain mail to enable its wearer to withstand and outlast the evil that’s hurled from all sides.
