Suffering With The Compassionate

Compassion is "to suffer with".  How many people do we know who claim they are compassionate are really suffering with someone?  How often does it appear that someone claiming compassion is not suffering in the least with another?

I heard an ad on the radio where the voice over claimed that compassion was giving someone a glass of water.  I, to this day, cannot fathom how giving someone a glass of water entailed suffering of any kind on the part of the giver.  But it apparently made the giver feel better about herself.  The voice was also mentioning this as encouragement to the listener to be equally compassionate.  Well, I've given out more than my share of beverages and I can't recall ever feeling a sense of suffering with the recipient of said beverage.  I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of these recipients were far from suffering before I gave them their beverage.  Although they may have suffered afterward if they didn't like the beverage I gave them. 

The people behind this radio ad was a missionary organization.  Now, depending on where this glass of water was given and to whom it was given it might have been an incredibly charitable gesture.  But a compassionate one?  No where in the radio spot was there any indication of how the giver may have been suffering with the receiver. 

And there's nothing wrong with charity.  Faith Hope and Charity?  It's one of the Big Three.  But compassion is more glamorous.  It implies empathy and empathy is the new sympathy.  Everybody wants to be empathetic.  And when understood as "to suffer with", when used in a sentence compassion often doesn't even make any sense.  But it sounds good.  It makes the giver sound and seem important and special. Even if it's nonsense. 

Why be accurately charitable when we can be arrogantly compassionate?  Because we can get away with it.

When someone tells me that they are compassionate, or has compassion, I wonder if they really know what they are saying.  Do they really suffer with others?  Now, lending an ear is not suffering with another.  Saying "I understand" over and over again is not suffering with another.  Repeating "I'm here for you" is not suffering with another.

Mother Teresa had compassion.  Maximilian Kolbe  had compassion.  Father Damian had compassion.  They did a bit more than go around handing out glasses of water.  They gave more than their ears.  They did more than understand.  When they said "I'm here for you" they were also "there with", "suffering with" and verily truly really meant it.

Do we?

The Boss and The Bureaucrat

Last night I had thought about adding my literary voice to the multitudes who shook their collective heads in amazement that bureaucrats in London wouldn't let a couple of senior citizens named Bruce and Paul stay out past curfew to sing a few songs for their fans in Hyde Park.  But curfew is curfew.  Rules are rules. The letter of the law will be obeyed even if the Spirit In The Night suggested otherwise. 

Now, the thought of pulling the plug on The Boss is kinda amusing.  Considering his reputation for playing three hour plus concerts the thought that the only way to get him off the stage is to cut the power and make him go home would be of the highest compliment for him and his band.  The bureaucratic fear that he might entertain the public into infinity unless he was stopped should put a smile -or big grin- on any and all Boss and E Street Band fans.  But he is an American and when in London...

But.  But...  Mr. McCartney?  Sir Paul McCartney?  A Knight!  If only he had his horse and lance.  A knight and Member of the British Empire is unceremoniously told he can't stay out past 10:30pm and play with his friends.  This is now the second time the city of London has shut down a concert involving Paul.

Not only did The Boss give the public more than their money's worth with a three hour plus concert he threw in a mini Paul McCartney and the E Street Band featuring Bruce Springsteen concert as an added bonus at no extra charge only to have it all pretty much immediately shut down by the powers that be because they were more concerned with rich neighbors of the park instead of a public that was having a wild but innocent time courtesy of two artists grateful for and to their fans.  Bureaucrats are rarely talented and also rarely grateful to and for anything except themselves and their rules.  And that is why the concert ended the way it did.

This never would've happened in Asbury Park.

 

Leadership

I, as of this writing, have a follower to my blog.  That makes me a leader.  I am a leader.  I take my responsibilities as leader seriously and will not let my follower down.

My first act as leader will be to dole out (Bob Dole was a leader) gingerbread houses to all the homeless.  This will also solve the hunger problem in my blogdom.  You see, a leader is always thinking.

Many have asked me (actually, nobody) that since I have solved the homeless and hunger problems what will I do about the naked problem amongst my soon to be multitude of followers.  Yes.  I agree.  There is not enough nakedness in my blogdom.  I will most certainly rectify this problem once I solve more pressing matters that need to be ironed out.

Why is the sky blue?  Hey! Who put peanut butter in my chocolate!?  Who put chocolate in my peanut butter!?

Thank you for following my leadership.

Greatness Declared

A great nation does not deserve great art.

A great nation produces great art.

If a great nation does not produce great art

It does not deserve great art.

Nor is it a great nation.

The above is based on a public radio announcement I repeatedly hear. I found it odd that a great nation (meaning us) were not to create great art because we are great but rather we are entitled to great art because we are great. If we are great our art should be a sign of it. If we don’t have great art that should say something about our greatness. And the fact that we feel entitled to something we aren’t doing says even more.

And who decides what is great art? Maybe we have it and the people running the ad aren’t great enough to see it. If we are a great nation there should be great art out there already and these people need to come down from their ivory tower and find it instead of telling us we are entitled to what we don’t have when we in fact already have it. Or admit we don’t have it and then rethink what it means to be a great nation and whether or not we are one.