empathy – a meditative journey

you missed this morning’s NPR’s Morning Edition.

“Let’s write a song about a woman telling a guy off.”
Ulaby, Neda. “‘You Don’t Own Me,’ A Feminist Anthem with Civil Rights Roots, Is All About Empathy.” June 26, 2019
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/26/735819094/lesley-gore-you-dont-own-me-american-anthem

“Many have taken up the song [You Don’t Own Me] as a symbol of women’s empowerment — like when the female cast of Saturday Night Live sang ‘You Don’t Own Me’ with actress Jessica Chastain the night of the 2018 Women’s March — but this fiercely feminist anthem was written by two men. David White died earlier this year, but John Madara, now 82 years old, says the two songwriters were disgusted by how much music written for female singers in the early 1960s centered on mooning over guys and decided to try something: “Let’s write a song about a woman telling a guy off.

“Madara says the song’s sensibility was also shaped by his upbringing in a multiracial Philadelphia neighborhood and his participation in the civil rights movement. ‘I saw how black people got treated,’ he says. ‘It was horrible, horrible, horrible. My friends and I got locked up in Philadelphia and Mississippi, and they treated us like gangsters. And my black friends got hit more than I got hit. [The police] had billy clubs and hit you across the legs, but the black guys got hit across the body. Those are things you don’t forget.'”

And while we’re talking about empathy, please join

“Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps”.

Lights for Liberty is calling for communities around the country to join them in holding an event called: “Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps”. The event will take place on Friday, July 12. To find out more about the organization and their plans for this national vigil you can go to their website – https://www.lightsforliberty.org/

newkindofempathy

After listening to the TED Talk, “Can a Divided America Heal”, I did a brief exploration of the three basic principles of moral psychology

Generally we influenced by intuition and then use that which “feels right” to justify our moral judgments.
The underlying motivation in moral reasoning and communication is directed more towards manipulation or persuasion than exploration of truth.
Morality is a crucial element of tribalism which is the building block for the development of large, cooperative societies.

A bit of personal reflection opens a window of understanding of how I’m more often than not influence by what feels right and yes, the importance I place in intuition over reasoning. Often a movement towards “spiritual” reasoning occurs after a period of solitude and contemplation.

There is also an awareness that I do enjoy the rhythmic power of football tribalism while being perplexed by a religious leader’s comment about limiting compassion to one’s own tribe.

Then finally…do I acknowledge the possibility of some hidden agenda to persuade you to join me in what feels right over someone else’s sense of right? Ugh, I think I’ll close this window for a bit and open one that has us explore a new empathy.

…we have an existential threat on our hands..we need a new kind of empathy…if you want to escape from this [the anger and worry of the last year], read Buddha, read Jesus, read Marcus Aurelius. They have all kinds of great advice for how to drop the fear, reframe things, stop seeing the other people as your enemy. There’s a lot of guidance in ancient wisdom…(Jonathan Haidt)

Ancient wisdom guiding us to “a new kind of empathy.” I believe that the on-the-ground community response to Harvey is a living example of an ancient empathy that has the potential to heal.

I invite you to listen to the TED talk below in which social psychologists Jonathan Haidt and TED Curator Chris Anderson explore the sharp divisions of today and then discuss how we may be able to move forward. _()_