Before I say anything know this: I don't feel as though empathy has completely left our world but it's an endangered concept. We have forgotten that we all suffer, we are all inherently human and that connects on levels deeper than socioeconomic status, political affiliation, or ethnicity. The human condition is to feel but somewhere along the line we became machines. We look at machines all day, with bright OLED or LED screens that throw massive amounts of information at us ... too much to process. We scroll through news feeds and read articles titled, "15 Killed in Bombing Attack in Syria, Another 150 wounded," and we don't feel anything. Fifteen people just perished and we have diminished their existence to a number.

Speech for Humanity

Charlie Chaplin was right. "More than cleverness, we need kindness." We are all human beings and helping one another should be our priority. Many of us have lost the human connection. Technology that could be saving millions is instead enslaving millions. We look at our phones and see and hear nothing. Our ears covered, our mouths sown shut, and our blinders put on. The message holds true, our hearts need to become open. To lay aside differences and conceptualize the suffering happening within our world.

Those 15 killed Syrians had fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. They may have had their own families, wives, husbands and children. They may have been educated or uneducated. They may have been Muslim or Christian. They may have had a dream, an aspiration, hopes and fears. They were not unlike many of us. They were people. I've always struggled at the way we quantify loss. We attach numbers and that's when the disconnect happens.

“We all of us need to be toppled off the throne of self, my dear," he said. "Perched up there the tears of others are never upon our own cheek.”
― Elizabeth Goudge, "The White Witch"

It's become chronic. To the point where we must re-teach ourselves how to feel for others. How to go out of our way to understand the human condition of suffering and try to combat it together. My hope is that someday we can find our ways back to compassion with empathy as a solid base in our world, where kindness outweighs cruelty and where love, compassion and empathy take hold.

My parting gift is this, a last glimmer of hope; there are a minority of people in this world that understand empathy, and these are the people we need as our leaders — people to lead by example, people that can teach us how to feel again. To become less cold, like machinery, and more warm. To find our humanity again.

“Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment opens the way to empathy. Empathy foreshadows reform.”
― Derrick A. Bell, "Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The Permanence Of Racism"