Paying it Forward: Empathy is knowledge #105
Many are only one bad experience or bad choice away from deep troubles. Plato said,“The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world.”
Jack Browne, February 23, 2025
Empathy is sensing other’s emotions, coupled with their thinking or feelings.
Empathy can be affective, or cognitive.
Affective empathy is how we are affected — for instance, how we mirror that person’s feelings or stress.
Cognitive empathy, or perspective taking, is one’s ability to identify and understand another’s emotion.
At the convenience store, I cheerfully let another gentleman go ahead and checkout before me. We bantered a bit back and forth.
While paying, the man noticed the cashier wasn’t smiling at our antics and asked, “How is your day, ma’am?”
She stopped and looked up at both of us and said, “Not to well. I had to put my dog down. His leg was broken, and I couldn’t afford to get it fixed.”
It was a sobering moment for all three of us.
Our responses, not inspirational literary works: “I’m really sorry to hear that” and, “hope things get better.”
As the three of us looked back and forth, we all knew how that poor woman felt right then. But all the two of us had to offer, were a few words of sympathetic support.
It’s cold and rainy. I serve meals at Wichita Falls Faith Mission. The beginning of the month, people receive their “funds for the month.” On sunny days, we don’t fill the room -- almost, but not all the way. Cold and wet days the room fills. Towards the end of the month, as monthly funds are spent, the room is filled while some wait for seats to open when others leave.
I learned this week that there are many WFISD students who go hungry and are homeless – meaning they don’t have a “regular” home, they stay in a motel, or couch-surf with family or friends.
What do these situations have in common? People living life — just one bad decision or so away from where I’ve been.
Having empathy doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll want to help someone in need, though it’s often a vital first step toward compassionate action.
Who would step up for you? Who would you step up for?
Same answer, those that should. Is that you?
“The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world,” Plato, c. 428-347 B.C., Athenian philosophy and key figure in ancient Greece.
Helping another is good for the soul.
Published Wichita Falls Times Record News, Trends Section, Sunday February 23, 2025.
Click to volunteer or donate at Wichita Falls Faith Mission https://faithmissionwf.org
Click to Volunteer with WFISD and get started by filling out the forms for a simple background check before you can volunteer and interact with students https://www.wfisd.net/departments/community-partnerships/volunteer.
Jack Browne is a community activist and technology engineer, sales and marketing executive at Motorola, MIPS Technologies and other companies. How are the children doing?