We, as humans, like to categorize. It makes the world easier to digest.
We fit the people around us into labels: users, coworkers, competitors.
Then they’re no longer just people — they’re the boxes we’ve put them into. And we’ve removed ourselves of the burden of feeling compassion.
Which is total nonsense.
The world runs on compassion. The world celebrates compassion.
In Krista Tippett’s TED talk about compassion, Tippett argues for a new definition of compassion. She says:
“Compassion can be synonymous with empathy. It can be joined with the harder work of forgiveness and reconciliation, but it can also express itself in the simple act of presence. It’s linked to practical virtues like generosity and hospitality and just being there, just showing up.”
We need to find that presence in ourselves.
We are only as much as what we can give to others.
