compassion or mutiny
Jim April 2nd, 2008
i thought this video talk by karen armstrong was interesting. she identifies compassion as a starting point for meaningful conversation and connection among us all. i’m not blind to the fact that people believe divergent things about God. and yet, i have found love and compassion as a meaningful starting place for all people interested in seeking truth peacefully. at least this is what i have found in my own relational world.
(photo by zoo gal)
- God , Kingdom of God , Love , Pondering , Uncategorized , religious detox
- Comments(4)
Jim, I totally agree with what you have written above. Compassion and mercy must be foremost in our minds. Haven’t seen the video yet, but hope to check it out soon.
I heard someone say that the definition of mercy is the willingness to hear and understand the full story behind what makes a person think and act the way he does. I like that. It takes compassion to want to listen even when you think you know the answer already. And my God, when I start listening I find out how few “answers” I really have.
I went through a period of 2 months waking every morning with such intense headache pain behind my right eye that I could not function. I was literally crazy in pain. I tried going to the doctor and he didn’t listen to me at all. He treated me just like the last guy who came in complaining of sinus pain. Everything he told me, I’d tried already. All I wanted was for someone to listen to what I was going through and accept the possibility that maybe he didn’t “know how I feel.” I wanted for someone to let me be in my own unique place (even though it was agony). Somehow I believed that this would be the first step toward figuring out what would truly help me. If it didn’t start with compassion toward me, I had absolutely no tolerance for it.
sounds right to me!
That was a beautiful and compelling talk by Karen Armstrong. I agree with her that compassion is the foundation that we need to get back to, not only between the religions of the world but even just between family members, neighbors, or others who don’t ‘believe the way we do’ .
It just occurred to me that perhaps the reason compassion has gotten squeezed out of our daily lives is because it takes TIME to stop and ‘be present’ for another person, especially someone we disagree with. Sometimes in the ‘importance’ of all our daily activities we think that’s an inconvenience, yet wouldn’t that be what we’d want others to do for us?