{"id":9707,"date":"2013-07-05T02:17:47","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T10:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.godammit.com\/?p=9707"},"modified":"2013-07-05T02:19:51","modified_gmt":"2013-07-05T10:19:51","slug":"human-kindness-overflowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godammit.com\/human-kindness-overflowing\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Kindness Overflowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, I stayed up until dawn after taking in too much suffering. I am trying to learn tonglen<\/em><\/a>, a method of breathing in suffering and breathing out compassion, but I forgot. I forgot, and found myself dwelling on my own misery.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, I wrote a letter to someone whose partner killed himself. Later in the day, I answered an email from a man whose depressed wife has taken to her bed, leaving him with two jobs and the care of their children. Then I read about the mother who killed her 14 year old autistic son, incurring the understandable wrath of the disability community and beyond.<\/p>\n

So many problems and so many tragic circumstances with no easy solutions. It’s overwhelming. You have to do something, though, right?<\/p>\n

I have a bunch of Facebook “friends” who I don’t know in real life. I acquire them for the usual reasons. One of them, Jon, had an accident a few weeks ago that left him paralyzed in a wheelchair and unable to keep his apartment. His story triggered memories of Max’s despair over his injuries.<\/p>\n

I was determined to help Jon. I noticed that he had more than 1,000 Facebook friends. He is a political activist and provokes lively discussion on his Facebook page. So I posted my idea on his page: I exhorted Jon’s friends to each make a $5 donation to his Paypal account. What a great idea, I thought proudly! I felt deeply satisfied by my plan to rescue this person in need.<\/p>\n

Jon received four donations, including mine.<\/p>\n

He was okay with it, but I was horrified. I couldn’t get over it. Five dollars?? Wouldn’t anybody give five dollars to a human being in such difficult circumstances? What the fuck is wrong with people?<\/p>\n

I’m upset by indifference, even though I’m guilty of it all the time. I would like to see more compassion. Coincidentally, I just came across this study<\/a> in how compassion and kindness can be taught and developed, literally changing the brain in the process.<\/p>\n

More kindness would be great. The messages I’ve received from strangers who read my blog have often brought me to tears, just because kindness seems like such a meaningful gift. When we breathe in each other’s suffering and breathe out compassion, we are all that much closer to healing the unbearable pain of being human.<\/p>\n

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*photo (c) Nandini Valli Muthiah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"