Where Did Empathy Go?

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It was after church one Sunday. I don’t know what it is about Sundays but the average Sunday is extremely sunny. My dad usually says that it’s because of the number of people that pray for fair weather the previous night and who knows, that could be true.

Anyways, it was a characteristically hot Sunday and I was waiting to attend a meeting with members of my service unit in Church when I witnessed something. I’d already noticed this old man, by choice though. He was one of those elderly men who never aged, so to speak. Always full of life, always smiling. Practically everyone in Church knew him. His contagious smile was hard to miss.

And so on this day, he had started taking a walk back to his home when the big cars whizzed by. Mind you, I’d noticed some of the owners of these cars say hello to the man before hopping into their big jeeps and zooming off. But the problem is the way they drove. Blowing dust all over the man. He went into a fit of coughs and before he’d recover, another car would whizz by. Gracing us with another billow of dust and smoke.

At the third time, the man fell and some members, myself included rushed to the man to pick him up. He smiled in his usual way but this time, I couldn’t help but notice that it looked kind of…. Sad. Brushing the dust off his clothes, he said “It’s one of those things.”
I don’t know why I felt bad afterwards. I expected the man to rave but I’m sure he felt that it would look like he was feeling entitled. But my question to myself was “where has empathy gone to?” Now, this is one scenario, but I can cite several instances I’ve seen people show a gross lack of empathy.

I know it didn’t use to be like this. And I know, if I ask the average person, he’d respond that times have changed and people have a way of using your empathy or kindness against you. But while I clearly understand that, it doesn’t mean we should completely forget what it means to have empathy.

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Empathy is the ability to understand a person, to share in the person’s feelings, and to show solidarity. Empathy means, I may not be able to assist in the way that you need but I want to show you that I care. Empathy means your issues matter to me not because we know each other but because you’re a fellow human being and it is the right thing to do.

That old man is seen in Church every Sunday, and yes, some people could arrange a car for him if they wanted, but if that may seem too much, the simple act of kindness by offering to give him a lift home wouldn’t take anything from anybody. If I say, I wouldn’t be like that if I had a car, people would say “wait until you have one first, and see if you’d be so hospitable.”

But my question is, so having money or in essence, having the means to do something for another person would suddenly rid you of the ability to care? It’s like you’re saying the more you have, the less inclined you should be to help out. But I see that as false. And I also believe no one is too poor to show empathy.

You may not have all the money in the world, and frankly, you don’t need to. A simple word of kindness, a simple show of empathy, could go a long way to brighten the day of someone.

Empathy is something that cannot be overemphasized. Let’s try to bring back empathy into our world today.❤️

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