- I think that care and empathy are good.
- I will never be made to feel bad for caring.
- We cannot realistically care about/help every single person, but everyone can care about/help someone. And virtually all of us can extend our circle of caring without detriment to our self-care. The object is not to care for everyone; the object is to care more, and to translate our caring into concrete action as often as we can.
- Empathy for someone doesn't necessarily mean condoning their actions. E.g. "I empathize with their anger and pain; I don't agree with their decision to take it out on others."
- It's debatable whether we can control our thoughts and emotions; however, (with some reasonable exceptions) we can control our actions.
- Though the past is unchangeable, we can exert some level of control over the present and future through individual choices.
- Though we have no say in what random, unforeseen circumstances life throws at us, we can decide how to think about them and how we may adapt to/grow from them.
- No human feelings are alien to me because I'm human. Though nobody can completely understand what it's like to be another person, nobody is completely incomprehensible to others.
jun 23 2017 ∞
aug 17 2020 +