Are We Conserving Our Compassion? September 2006
A hurricane wipes out a city and a year later rebuilding is still slow. Poverty abounds and the victims are blamed as though it’s their fault. Tragedy happens on a local or national scale and by the next day, it’s old news. What has happened to compassion? Have we become too overwhelmed with pain, suffering, and death? A natural survival instinct when one is overwhelmed is to become numb: to withhold compassion. Yet, compassion has always been one of the most powerful characteristics of great individuals; it needs renewal now.
Perhaps withholding compassion should be called the “CNN Syndrome” because of the role that news organization has played in making war, famine, terror, etc. available 24/7. Reality is thrust at us every time we turn on the TV, turn on the radio, or even turn the corner. At a certain point we become overwhelmed and can’t take it anymore. And that is when we turn off our desire to help anyone else; we protect ourselves and conserve our compassion.
David Friend, in his new book, Watching the World Change, offers readers a startling photograph by Thomas Hoepker. The shot captures a group of friends on a break, chatting away on the Brooklyn waterfront on September 11th, while across the water smoke and residue roll through lower Manhattan. Hoepker, commented to Friend, “They were totally relaxed like any normal afternoon. It’s possible they lost people and cared but they were not stirred by it.”
So, too, when hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans and revealed the raw wound of poverty in the US, we were stirred ? for a moment. We did not seem to linger and ask the difficult questions. We did not wonder why, with all the wealth in this country, we lead the world with the greatest percentage (21%) of children in poverty. (Source: Luxemburg Income Survey: www.lisproject.org/keyfigures/povertytable.htm)
Great individuals do not withhold or conserve their compassion, they give it freely, “spending it” on people, causes and issues that affect them and others. John F. Kennedy put it very well in his well worn statement, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask, rather, what you can do for your country.” Great individuals know that the willingness to look outside of oneself is essential to compassion.
Looking outside of our self, we cannot remain numb because compassion itself begins with feeling the pain of others. The Latin root of the word “compassion” means literally “to suffer with” and once we permit ourselves to feel again, we will realize that we have plenty of compassion to offer.
And because we might fear being overwhelmed, it’s important that we mindfully resume the practice of spending our compassion. Mother Teresa of Calcutta summed up how to spend compassion in two quotes. “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” “I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?”
Spending our compassion freely assists those around us. Spending our compassion generously transforms us.
The Greatness ProjectTM is researched and written by:
Scott Asalone & Jan Sparrow
Copyright © ASGMC, Inc. 2006