It is in our power to discover the will
of Nature from those matters on which we have no difference of opinion.
For instance, when another man's slave
has broken the wine-cup we are very ready to say at once, 'Such things must
happen.' Know then that when your own cup is broken, you ought to behave in the
same way as when your neighbor's was broken.
Apply the same principle to higher
matters. Is another's child or wife dead? Not one of us but would say, 'Such is
the lot of man'; but when one's own dies, straightway one cries, 'Alas! Miserable
am I!'
But we ought to remember what our feelings are
when we hear it of another.
—Epictetus,
The Handbook, Chapter 26 (tr
Matheson)
Reality
is hardly subjective, and the world is not what we would wish it to be. Yet we
must understand how much our own impressions and judgments, unique to each of
us, inform our perception of that reality.
What
appears one way to my own experience may well appear quite differently when I
see it experienced by another. There’s the rub. It is my responsibility to
recognize that the pain or pleasure I may feel is hardly any different than the
pain or pleasure another may feel, just because he is the one feeling it.
In a
moment of complete despair, I once told the person I love the most that I would
be walking away, and that she would be better off without all the baggage I had
brought with me. It took some time of honest and humble reflection to realize
how heartless I had been. I allowed my own self-pity to cloud my love. How
might I feel if she had said that to me? I would immediately throw myself into
the arena and fight her fight with her. I would never back away, I would never
give up, because that is what it means to love another person.
Now why
was I expecting that there was one standard for me, and another for her? Why
would I think that I should not act in a way I would hope others would act? Why
did I think my own experience was any less powerful than her own?
To think
sympathetically, and even empathically, is to put oneself in the position of
others, to think and feel like them, even to think and feel with them. We apply
different measures, because we think we are somehow special. We aren’t.
Everyone is special.
When I
was a young pup, I felt like I was constantly going to funerals. Within a few
years, two grandparents and two great-grandparents, all very dear to me, passed
away. Some people say that children bounce back from loss easily, but that
wasn’t true for me. Each one of those losses broke my heart, and that last one,
the death of my Nana, my father’s grandmother, hit me the hardest.
I felt
so miserable because she passed away over Easter, and I never had the chance to
say goodbye to her. My father, quite wisely, had made sure I went to see her
often, just to spend my time with her after school. She became like a newfound
friend, because she listened to me, and I did my best to listen to her.
At her
funeral, I battled through dozens upon dozens of people offering their
condolences. I know they meant well, and I hold no grudges. But I quickly
became tired of hearing the same tired statements. “She was such a good woman.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss.” “You are in my prayers.” “God called her back.”
There
was one fellow, and I have absolutely no idea who he was, that simply sat next
to me in silence for some time. He put his hand on my shoulder, and when I
turned to him, he simply said, “I know.” He squeezed my hand, and went on his
way.
Now
there was a man of sympathy, and of empathy. He was trying to see it as I saw
it.
When my
wife and I lost our first child, I was almost moved to violence when one person
too many told me that it was all “for the best.” In one sense, this was quite
right, because anything thrown at us by Nature and Nature’s God can be turned
to good, if only we so choose. But that is hardly what someone who is grieving
wants to hear.
I was
boiling with anger, until I looked at it differently, another one of those
Stoic Turns. Here was another human being, trying to give comfort. That I did
not appreciate it as she intended it was entirely on me, not on her. I thought
of all the clumsy ways I have tried to offer comfort myself, and I was able that
time to say, with all sincerity, “thank you.”
I no
longer think it is platitude to say that we should walk in someone else’s
shoes.
Written in 5/2007
Image: Altobellow Melone, The Road to Emmaus (c. 1516)
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