I'd like to dedicate this to my Love, Brian. I'm working on this because of you, my friend my love.
Empathy vs. Love? One and the same?
I love my friends, family, and those special few out there. I love humanity generally. Or, do I
love my {Friends, family, 'others'} and empathize with humanity? Let’s look at the definitions:
“Empathy: the ability to understand and share the
feelings of another.
Love: a strong feeling of affection, a great
interest or pleasure in something, a deep affection or sexual love. “ (from Oxford Dictionaries).
The definitions of love presented don’t do it justice,
but how does one define love? Try it! It’s not so easy for some of us. Here’s
my attempt; love and empathy are real energies/memes/something! - and are ‘represented’
to our minds as emotions, and to me emotions are kind of mental muscles. The
more they are used, the stronger they get. Love and Empathy are positive,
pro-active emotions – though effects and actions vary, inspirations are consistent
in character, though they broadly encompass many expressions. Love is partly an
awareness of the unity of all things, and the basic drive toward benevolence
that my faith believes exists in our universe. Empathy is the ability to ‘put
in practice’ the feelings engendered by love. There are infinite gradients and varieties…
but all are beautiful.
Brian, as our new year and our New Life begin, I embrace you and all of the possibilities to come. And ... you must recall this one!
Brian, as our new year and our New Life begin, I embrace you and all of the possibilities to come. And ... you must recall this one!
