Are we learning?

Hey everyone! It’s really been a hot minute. Neglect isn’t really the right word for my lack of blogposts lately. I do very much enjoy writing these things but gathering my thoughts and ideas is like going on a wild goose chase. I’ve never actually seen one of those though, lol maybe I should look into it.

NONETHELESS!

I am here. We are both breathing. *calm inhale… then exhale*

Let’s start.

What have you been learning about yourself as of lately?

For me, in a general sense, is that people think more differently than I could have ever imagined.

And because I’ve never experienced or seen this many sides to a particular viewpoint, I just couldn’t understand it.

I’m gonna paint a quick picture for you, hopefully it makes sense. We can all see 3-D, right? We can observe the length, height, and width of ANY object on our planet if we can reach it. Imagine only seeing 2-D. There’s no such thing as as “3-D”. A visual representation could be like being in a cartoon. If I’m a animated character, and am only exposed to my ‘cartoon’ surroundings, I am just what I know because of what I’ve experienced. If someone were to randomly dip a Coke can into my cartoon world, I would only see a circle. I am only capable of seeing the 2-D cross-sectioning of it because that’s only what my world allows. (this is a bit challenging to describe, I read it in a book somewhere, I’m srry lol)

Hopefully that sorta makes sense. I can’t possibly comprehend the idea of “3-D” because I’ve only ever experienced 2-D. That isn’t my fault. But am I willing to listen to someone from a “3-D” world try to help me understand what it’s like? Even if I’ll never actually get to experience it? Or am I so content in my whimsical cartoon world to even bother?

These are the state of things.

I personally am not struggling to understand many of the issues but have opened my ears up to hear many different sides (dimensions) because it’s just the human thing to do.

Human.

Last time I checked, humans weren’t innately wired to be empathetic. Pathetic, right? (punny)

I mean sure, I guess so. But that’s the truth.

If you would describe you or someone else as an empathetic person, you could probably track the reason for it down to maybe the way you/they were raised or some sort of trauma/pain experienced in life. Or you/they just know someone else’s story and have been exposed to those kind of truths.

It’s kinda just an ‘input equals output’ thing. Without the proper fossil fuels, the plane will not fly.

I do want to get into a some specifics with what’s happening in our world right now. I’m not afraid to share my thoughts on the matter, I love an open-ended discussion any day. But you, the reader, are just reading this. It isn’t a back and forth, “read the room” experience for me at least. I like to hear someone’s tone of voice, how they’re reacting, if they’re shaking their head. That allows me to “read the room” if you will, and still have a civil conversation.

George Floyd was buried about 20 minutes down the road from where I live. I have felt a multitude of emotions, via just hearing someone’s pain or just seeing it in their faces. And that’s enough for me.

If I can cry tears, it’s enough for me. I get to be reminded that I’m ‘human’ and that empathy can be accessed.

Just to be clear, for those who may not have ever taken to Google Dictionary to define these words:

Empathy= feeling someone’s pain without having to experience it.

Sympathy= feeling someone’s pain because you have personally experienced it.

Apathy (the big bad wolf)= hearing someone’s pain and not being able to feel it. (for whatever reason)

I’m sure we’ve all had our run-ins with apathy. To share one of mine, when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, I just couldn’t feel anything. On TV, I was seeing people’s houses getting destroyed and people’s cars underwater. People staying in shelters because they had nowhere to rest their heads anymore.

It felt so surreal.

There were so many volunteer opportunities to help rebuild but I just didn’t feel compelled to. Does that make sense? My family was okay and my dad’s lifted truck was able to get us from point A to point B amongst the never-ending floodwaters. The only in-person things I was witnessing, were the neighborhood curbs drowning in trash and debris. (“only” as if that’s not a big deal)

I share this to say, I know apathy and I didn’t realize it until I felt shame from a friend, for not wanting to volunteer. I still pushed myself to, but I was honest and pretty vulnerable with how I felt. Then soon enough, hearing my church family share about how it affected their home and seeing the tears in their eyes? Barely being able to speak through the pain? I understood. I felt it.

And I didn’t have to experience it.

I learned a valuable lesson, I would say.

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I’m ending this here, thank you for reading! Thank you to those who are subscribed to these posts! I’m not sure the number, I know there’s a few! Keep keeping on, y'all! We’re all in this together. Try to listen to each other without needing to agree. I’ve taken my turn to bat here and there but now it’s my turn to sit my butt in the dug-out.

Thanks again, everyone! :)