Just a Bit of Empathy
I don't care about about my own emotions.
Love, hate, sadness, depression-
Whatever, they're all there.
We all experience them.
Nothing special.
But empathy-
Feeling what others feel,
Understanding why they're feeling that way,
That's what really matters to me.
That's what I can't live without.
Who cares if I've been sad before
If I can't understand others' sadness?
If I can't understand others' sadness?
What's the point of being happy
If I can't appreciate others' happiness?
Emotions are fine and all
But human understanding is so much more important.
It's easy to feel emotions,
To get caught up in the drama of our own lives.
He did this, so I'm sad.
She said this, so I'm mad.
Feelings are instantaneous.
It takes effort, though,
To step back,
To take a moment
And put ourselves in someone else's place.
We're hurt-
Offended-
By the actions and words of others
Yet can't take one damn second
To consider their reasoning,
To consider why they did that,
Why they said that.
We're so selfish.
We don't think about anyone but ourselves.
We try to reason our chaotic lives
Into some semblance of order
Yet we don't even think about the chaos others experience.
How much effort would it take
To just have a little empathy?
To show some understanding
Towards your fellow people?
Our own emotions aren't constant
And they're certainly not always positive.
Half the time
My emotions are destructive.
I feel angry,
Down in the dumps,
Consumed by jealousy,
Lonelier than I could have believed,
Embarrassingly teen-angsty,
All that jazz.
My emotions make my mind
Like a sea in a storm
With no end in sight.
All I can do is try to stay afloat.
I figure it's the same for most people
And I have to remember
To keep that in mind.
We have to help each other deal with this.
We can't handle all this on our own.
So yeah,
Screw my emotions.
They'll come and go,
As expected.
What matters more is how I deal with them,
How I share them with others,
How others share their feelings with me,
How we connect with and understand each other.
There's nothing more important to me
Than empathy.
I can handle not being happy all the time.
I can handle not always feeling how I want
Because the world is so much bigger than me.
There's so much more going on
Than what's trapped in my head.
It just takes a bit of empathy to see.
The thing I can't live without-
What nobody can live without-
Is that.
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