"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb in his skin and walk around in it." For many of us studying secondary level English in Australia, we may have read this quote from Atticus in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.
Empathy is tough to practice in a time poor, competitive society. While I believe it's in our nature, it is a skill that requires more and more practice in our rapidly changing environment. I've found that putting myself in an environment which consciously or unconsciously demands me to act and be present has been helpful on all fronts. Simply put:
We need to be placed into certain situations to awaken and cultivate new parts of us.
Such is the challenger's mentality. It's a blessing that I can wake up to a peaceful society, I try to practice this appreciation everyday. Yet it can also be like a dream, living within comfort and choosing 'progression' whenever I please. It's tough to identify how much is 'self-help' and how much is 'enabling'. I do find that in current society, we have hardly any boundaries for things we like and plenty of boundaries for things we do not like. Perhaps it should be the other way around more; less excuses, more doing for tough things and more discipline and less indulgence. Anyhow, without over-analysis, I'm glad that this environment I live in has allowed me to understand more of what Harper Lee was getting at.
Why do people drink? Why do people choose self isolation over their tightly knit community? Why are some parents strict in their parenting? (I previously answered that the common denominator is fear) We can never assume. The age old quote, "don't judge a book by its cover."
To me, the sad yet beautiful reality is that we have to come to our own realisations, our own lessons and beliefs alone. While we share this universe together, ultimately that sensational 'Ah ha!' moment can only be travelled alone. And if we truly wish to influence these perceptions of others, it starts with ourself.
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