Empathy

Speak Up Challenge

By Mel E. FurnishPublished 4 years ago • Updated 3 years ago • 8 min read

Empathy.

The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Putting yourself in someone's shoes to try to understand.

Trying to understand a different point of view, a different life, a different situation, a different pain, a different experience.

We all feel pain, we all suffer, we all face hardships.

Being human is about emotion. No matter what you feel, even "dead" is still a feeling. The absence of emotions is impossible, no matter how hard we may try to cover them up, push them away, or ignore them. They remain, always. Haunting us in the back of our minds or relentlessly dancing within our lives. The pang in the heart, the stolen breath, the sinking, the uplifting, the freedom, the imprisonment, the darkness, the light, the life, the death...

We can't escape our emotion, it surrounds us like energies. Even though we can't always control how we feel, we can control how we handle them.

In "My Name is Earl" he believes that when he had the best moment of his "crappy" life, he instantly was almost killed because of having something good happen that he didn't deserve, because he was a bad person his whole life.

To be human is to be real, imperfect, flawed, and all of us have a dark side. Whether it is secrets, crimes, sins, lies, broken promises, lust, revenge, etc. Every single person you walk or drive past has a story. When I'm bored, I like to take a few moments to imagine life behind them. Their greatest fears, their worst enemies, their past, their future, their present, their vices, their dreams, their career, their environment, their worst and best memories...

Every single living being has a story to tell, and the Earth has one that has been turned to darker chapters. Within every line and between every word, our home has been trying to plead, cry out and beg for mercy. Blindness comes in many forms; one unfortunate one has taken millions of humans into a falsified land within their own head. They are the type of people you say "the world revolves around them" and "they can't get out of their own head" because it is true. They are so far deep inside a mental lie that they are not aware of reality.

Take a moment, immerse yourself into your imagination. Step outside of your own life for a minute to escape your own problems, see what else haunts, burns, dies, and vanishes into the wind like dust. We are all a speck in a vast universe beyond our imagination; what gives us any right to believe our problems are alone?

In the real world, the planet is dying. The trees are the lungs we have burned and turned black like the lungs of smokers. As if we humans in our suffering must unleash it onto others to feel better, like bullies. Our greed to reach the top leaves careless, cruel energy. This energy spreads like wildfire as our competition rises, encouraging us to continue to destroy and try to play "God" because we are "on top." We, humans, are "indestructible" because of our reckless, neglectful, selfish tendencies.

Life is full of irony, there is always a balance. In the end, a balance will force its way. Life always finds a way, like a rare species of snake nearly going extinct, creating a unisex specimen to reproduce to save itself. When a wildfire ravages a forest, new life rises up from the ashes and feeds on the nutrients of the old and dead. No matter what, nature will find a way, and if in the end, that means unleashing hell on humanity then it will be. Energy is more than power, it is all around in many forms. Negative energy breeds more negative and as it accumulates, so will negative outcomes. As we continue to destroy the planet, we ultimately destroy ourselves.

No, we are not frozen over. No, we are not flooded. No lava and fire are raining from above. No sun flares have crippled our technology-dependent lives (yet).

Reminds me of The Maze Runner series!

Any-who, why should we care? That's years and years from now. Right? I mean, that won't be our problem! We will just be condemning our descendants to deal with our mistakes like a bunch of petty, corrupt, selfish, ignorant, cruel, self-righteous politicians. We will be leaving our children's children and so on to deal with what we did wrong, to live in a world very different from ours because we were too lazy to put in a little effort.

Personally, I would like my children, grandchildren, and 'greats' to experience the beauty that our home offers. Sure it would be epic to have spaceships and visit other planets and live somewhere else... however, it is extremely screwed up and immoral, heartless, and downright evil to leave behind the animals, plant life, etc. to suffer alone in the problems we created. If we do not face consequences now, we will surely one day.

In Avatar, the humans were painted "beautifully." They were greedy, the bad kind of ambitious, selfish, and couldn't get out of their own heads. They tried to force the Na'vi to do whatever they wanted. We talk and debate and hate on our history for how we treated "natives" all across the world throughout history. Many places over history have had tragedies of this sort occur, where people came in and forced their will upon other people. Humanity as a whole is doing the same to the planet. Take, take, and take until there will be nothing left. The Earth can't replenish as fast as we have reaped. If you are going to reap, you must also sow. If we expect to have something to always reap from, we must always have something to plant and grow.

It is long overdue, the time to make changes. Here is your call to action to make a difference, to make an impact for the better, not for worse. Step up Millennials, this is your chance to make that impact you are always wishing to do before you die. To leave the place better than you found it, even the smallest of good deeds can start a chain reaction.

Let's encourage doing good again, let's cheer people on who are going the extra mile to do selfless things. Let's start a "Pay it Forward" for the world, the planet, our home and the home to millions of other living things that have given us so much, it's time we pay it back. It is time we start caring for our mother and stop taking her for granted.

Strolling beneath the shady canopy,

Among the strong trees and their majesty.

Their roots burrowing deep,

Breathe in, you can weep.

The fresh air with a drift of peace,

To soothe your sorrow with this uncanny release.

Here is a place of connection,

Surrounded by life, poised and silent.

Feel a strange, yet pure vection,

As if floating through space, each star like a diamond,

Only here, in the middle of nowhere, they shine so bright.

Tears stream down your cheeks,

The sweet escape that doesn't hurt you.

Come here and dream of peaks,

The ups in Life, versus the downs, the times of blue,

Without them, we don't learn, we don't see,

The bigger pictures, the depth of reality, the other's view.

We must accept and cope if we are to be free,

To your own heart be true,

Dark times are the ironic fee,

For the time, to renew.

In "Inside Out" they touch on the concept that "sadness" is about understanding, pain, suffering, coping, and connection. Despite the pain, feeling sad has its benefits. It is impossible to be happy all the time, the human experience revolves around emotion and energy. Giving off good, positive energy will attract more positive.

It's time we start spreading goodwill and learn to be more empathetic. We need to understand one another better, so we can work together. Put aside differences and opinions and see the bigger picture. Our home can't take our abuse forever. There will be consequences for our wrongdoings, and not only us, but even more will pay for it.

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