This is a followup to my last post, because it seems mildly incomplete. I should have perhaps mentioned empathy.
Empathy seems to me the only means of truly communicating with anyone, of understanding them. It’s what we all want, for someone to see the world as we see it. And yet, a fully empathetic experience, actually getting into the head of another, being in their mind and experiencing emotions from their perspective, is not possible. Nor, I suspect, are we capable of understanding just how far apart from one another we really are.
All of this begs for tolerance and acceptance of differences as critical to building relationships. And it goes a long way towards explaining why the human race is in such trouble…and maybe why humanity today can be such a lonely place.
I can predict that if you could enter the consciousness of most people you would find it barren of the issues that most excite you. How many do you know who are striking a path through Life even remotely similar to your own? How many harbor a compelling need to think their way through it? As Bertrand Russell said, “Most people would sooner die than think, and that is what happens.”
Wow! More later…