Empathy

Picture: My half completed work of King Varian Wrynn, leader of the Alliance in the World of Warcraft. It was half-completed because I messed it up; I was unsatisfied with the way it was turning out because it was beginning to lose resemblance to the character. 

I know that I mess up in life from time to time - the poor choices that we make from the momentary lapse of judgement that plagues our sentience. Thus, I often remind myself to consistently reflect on my thoughts, my choices, my responses. "Am I right to think this way?" "How should I respond?What if I looked from other people's perspective? Their circumstances, their personality, their feelings. If I were them, would I react similarly?" I suppose this explains my taciturn nature. I simply cannot dish out my opinion that would influence the choices of others who take my words seriously without strongly convincing myself that my words will be in the interests of the greater good and I simply cannot bring myself to lash out on someone so long as there was just a shred of reason behind their choices. 一言既出，驷马难追.

I know that I should never expect others to reciprocate this but of late I am hit hard with the stark reality that empathy is sorely lacking in our society. I have observed people's personality/behaviour and (perhaps even my own) labelled and brushed off. People who leap on the opportunity to speak up for themselves but not for others. I have observed that one's words will be interpreted in the manner convenient for the listener's perspective. One's tolerance is interpreted as one's weakness. The prevalence of this miscommunication kills society. (Perhaps it is encoded in our cognitive limitations?) 

Not many people can think for himself/herself let alone for others. Their lone voices swept by the tide of opinion or muffled in fear of being the lone frequency in this cacophony of voices. To thread one's own path requires one to walk the lonely road. And the lonely road is hard to thread.