Empathy and empathy

Experience, empathy and compassion. What determines this or that reaction of a person, say, who has watched a documentary about the life of homeless children who sleep on the street and sniff glue? We do not recognize ourselves in what happens and happens in life very close to us. It seems alien to us, some kind of fairy tale or hyperbolized - something that has little to do with reality, our reality... We can only realize the objective picture if we have been on both sides of the event.

I don't worry about people's pain and suffering, seeing it in snippets on the web. Except maybe children. Is it because I am a callous and cynical person? Or because I haven't experienced it myself?

The situation with animals is quite different. I deliberately skip over such video material, trying not to see even the splash screen. The pain and suffering of animals is very heartfelt to me. Why? Because they can't defend themselves the way humans can? Or do they not deserve suffering and pain?

But there are those who let what they see pass through their hearts... the lives of the homeless, the hungry and the addicted. Even though they have never been in these or even similar situations themselves. How right and necessary are these feelings anyway? Perhaps they should still be appropriate.....

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