Inspiration: Essays & Musings
Busy, Busy, Busy
It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain...
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Diderot: The Danger of Setting Oneself Against the Law
At Half Price Books the other day I picked up a copy of five short pieces by Denis Diderot, the 18th Century French philosopher of the Enlightenment: This is Not a Story and other stories, a new translation by P.N. Furbank. (Oxford University Press, 1991) The last...
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Blame it on the Cupcakes
In Karen Armstrong's book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life she quotes Confucius, who said that the family is the first school of compassion. I've been thinking lately about how that applied to my family. Three things that I learned when I was three — and my...
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Homo Empathicus: the Evolution of Empathy
This illustrated talk by Jeremy Rifkin explains some of the neuroscience of empathy:
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Civil Discourse
One question that always, always, always arises when we are out and about talking about compassion concerns the anger in public discourse. How can we re-learn how to discuss important and controversial issues without resorting to shouting and name calling? Christopher...
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Love Your Neighbor: Funny & Profound 1952 Video
This clever, Academy Award-winning 1952 Canadian short had me laughing out loud. Then thinking. When the flower first appeared I thought the flower was a dandelion and the neighbors might start arguing over whether it should be pulled or remain — a battle we sometimes...
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Back to Basics: Sympathy, Empathy, Compassion
I admit it -- I get a little sloppy when I'm talking about compassion, sometimes conflating it with empathy or even sympathy. They aren't exactly the same. Sympathy comes from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathia, from Ancient Greek συμπάθεια...
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It’s Not All Golden: What Rules Do You Live By?
I'm one of those people who thinks that a lot of human behavior is governed by rules that are so ingrained we don't even realize we are following rules and may not be able to articulate them once we do. The Golden Rule, the underlying principle of the Charter for...
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We Don’t Know What We’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone
While sitting at the dining table the other day I glanced over to a corner of the room and was grossed out. I've been slacking on the housework for a while -- first, a broken wrist, then -- well -- other things are more interesting, aren't they? A more disciplined...
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The Ethic of Reciprocals
Some have called the Golden Rule, the heart of the Charter for Compassion, the ethic of reciprocity. Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself. Reciprocity, according to the dictionary, means mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or...
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The Language of Us and Them
Periodically, Slate has been running a piece about American events written using the tone and language US reporters typically employ when writing about events elsewhere. It's disconcerting, enlightening and in a very direct way, about compassion. The latest is about...
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Facts are Like Cows
We publish a series of classic fiction books that focus on particular peace & justice topics. Most are short stories, but End of the Line is an anthology of five short novels about the death penalty. As I re-read my introduction to the book -- about the impact that...
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The Compassion of Traffic Lights: Nothing Happened
At the beginning of our weekly staff gathering yesterday, Ann Helmke, the peaceCENTER's director, told us that all the traffic lights went out downtown. We leaned forward in our chairs, primed for a gory story of traffic snarls, blaring horns, some Texas-sized road...
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Feral Cats and Compassion
Cathy Rosenthal writes a column about animals for the San Antonio Express-News. Today she answered a compassionate question about the care and feeding of feral cats. Compassion moves us to feed them. Knowledge informs us that there is a better solution: Dear Cathy: My...
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Compassion Metrics: Social Climbing
I'm a numbers nerd. Compassion is not just a matter of being nice It's making sure that there is a safety net for our city's most vulnerable citizens. It's about infrastructure, and it can be measured. If you are a fan of the quantifiable -- what I call compassion...
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