The second of this community trinity is Compassion. The best line from The Last Jedi was something like, we’re gonna win not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love. I think in some ways we only really win by lifting up, never by tearing down. We might end up on top of the pile of rubble, but then it’s only rubble we rule.
National Geographic ran a story this month on the science of good and evil, noting scans of both psychopaths and extreme altruists which show differences in the structure of their brains. But they also described a program at Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Wisconsin that effectively used a positive reinforcement system on incorrigible inmates, as well as the work of Tania Singer, a social neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, who used forms of loving cognition and demonstrated that compassion can be nourished, taught, and heightened.
There is a reigning ethos that snark is cool, that a hard heart is a sign of a winner. I just passed on following the twitter feed of someone, otherwise like-minded, whose tagline was: “Liberal in my politics and my use of snark.” No thanks. I think pushing back against these mores that extol the hurtful and unkind, not to mention recalling the golden rule and thereby holding our tongues when tempted by the glow of snarky repartee, may go a ways to healing our wounded communities.
To live is to suffer. Everyone is fighting a similar battle and doing what they can to cope. Lets give each other a break, whoever is without sin can feel free to cast a stone, otherwise have a little charity.
Happy Holly Days
HOLLY DAYS 