Many years ago, I met a visitor from Japan, constantly wearing a mask on his nose and mouth. I presumed he wanted to escape the pollution. Maybe he was prone to allergies. However, he told me that he did not want to infect others with the mild common cold that he had.
What a noble sentiment! He was thinking of others. He did not want to be the reason of hurt or pain to others. He was showing compassionate empathy towards the possibility of infecting others. He cared for even the ones he did not know.
Compassion is derived from Latin ‘compassio’ and ‘compati’ that means ‘to suffer with’. It is to recognize the suffering of others and then take action to help. What was even more commendable was that the person was taking precautionary measures to avoid the suffering of others.
Compassion like sympathy is about feeling concern for someone, but with an additional move towards action to mitigate the problem. It is not just a sentiment but it results in responsible actions. When we hold compassion for others, we hold on to our humanity!
Let compassion be the guiding reason
So that humane values have cohesion!
~ Pravin K Sabnis
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