Let’s all admit it. We’re all hypocrites in our own way which we’ll never admit publicly. Sometimes we are that guy protesting capitalism with a megaphone purchased from SM or Lazada. Sometimes we are that girl who tweets viral posts on income inequality using a cellphone made by underpaid workers in a third world country. Sometimes we are that hardcore environmentalist who takes a first class flight or drives a V8 engine vehicle to a SAVE OUR PLANET rally. Sometimes we are that animal lover that has 6 pets but uses the best beauty products tested on animals. Sometimes we are the political analyst who fights for censorship on a platform that reaches millions of people. Sometimes we are that vegan who uses insecticide on their home garden. And sometimes we are the self proclaimed minimalist who owns 25 pairs of shoes and uses 15 different plain white t-shirts (that would be me).
And we are all suffering on some level. So instead of pointing fingers, let’s find compassion for the people who disagree with us, the people who makes us mad, the people on the “wrong” side of the issue as how we see it in our eyes.
Compassion is composed of the Latin preposition com (with) and the verb passus (to suffer). Meaning, to have compassion, we must simply be with someone who’s suffering. We don’t need to feel their suffering (that’s empathy), nor must we remove their grief or provide countless solutions, we need only bare witness to their suffering.
You can hug somebody even if you don’t agree with them.
You can listen to somebody even if you don’t want to hear from them.
You can love somebody even if you don’t like every piece of them.
Why? Because nobody is perfect, and not everybody will always be correct. Winning the argument does not mean winning in life at all.
If we can do this, then we then can temper our interactions with compassion, then we have a greater chance to ease our collective suffering as a whole.
Question of the day: In what ways do you personally show compassion to someone you don’t agree, don’t wanna hear from or don’t even like at all?
December 17, 2020 Author Khel Lawrence
Respect is one key to practice if we are to show compassion.
For me, even though I don’t get along with that person, I just listen to their problems. The problem is, if that person also does not get along with me. Let’s say both of us are stuck with each other into a team and we cannot do anything about it, all we can do is to listen to each other and respect their opinions.