Empathy vs Sympathy

Em.pa.thy
noun
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.


Sym.pa.thy
noun
Feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.


A recent event on Twitter, with regards to suicide brought about the compassionate side of people where suddenly regardless of whether one knows the person personally or not, they are all lending a hand to help find said person and stop her from attempting anything foolish.


And then of course you have the other side of the fence who accused her of being all attention grabbing, being selfish for not cherishing life when some out there are struggling to just live and I guess what irks me the most is the part when people go all about their own personal experiences route.


How one chooses to lead one's life, is beyond our control. True.
If one chooses to end living, is beyond our control. True.
But if one chooses to end living then tell me about it, then it is within control.


Many questioned her intentions in doing what she did. I say it is of no fault of hers that she did what she did apart from some minor inconveniences to some of our lives. However, the bigger question here is, whatever happened to human empathy? No doubt it is her choice, her life. But here we have people who don't even know her personally writing her off, giving up on her and condemning her. 


So what if you've been through the route? You, then of all people, should know how hard the struggle is like. So what if you're a "personality" who's seen and experienced suicide of loved ones? You, then of all people, should know how much it hurts for the people around her if that happened.


What she needs, is not your sympathy. What she needs, is some empathy. Can we, as human beings, at least give that to her? For humanity's sake? Please.

Lessons from THE fish

I came across this Facebook update from a friend's profile.

"Something peculiar happened today when I got home from work. I opened my front door and saw a fish lying on the floor, it had probably jumped out of the tank. Ants were circling it and a couple of them were already on the poor thing. Thinking that it was dead, I tried to sweep it onto the dustpan (the only type of fish I would touch with my bare hands is one that is in fillet form). However, it jumped when I nudged it. I leaped back in shock but there was a possibility that it was still alive.

I dashed to the bathroom, filled a pail with water, put a foot in to test the temperature and popped the fish into the pail. I stood there for a couple of minutes watching it, hoping that it was still alive but it lay motionless at the bottom. I gave up and went to my bedroom to take a nap because the disappointment was rather overwhelming.

I have just checked on the fish and I'm glad to announce that it is swimming in the pail.

I guess the morale of the story is:
Sometimes one fish will jump out of the tank, but we should never assume that it's dead (Yes, I am ashamed of myself.) The odds may be stacked against it as vultures circle above it, but as long as it wants to live and there's someone there to put it back into the tank, it will live."

Miracles do happen.
Willpower is real.

Judgments passed towards someone just by looking at them at face value is also prevalent. Sometimes with people, judging someone is easy but we may not realise nor understand the struggles that someone is going through. It is unfortunate but sometimes all one needs is a little nudge/push to actually excel and live, even when the odds are against them. Just like the fish.