Reflections

We are asleep with compasses in our hands ~W.S. Merwin I just realized that the words compass and compassion are only three letters apart. They mean different things of course.  The word compass means to circle or go around, and comes from the Latin com ("with") + pass  ("a step"). The word compassion means to feel for someone else's suffering, and comes from com ("with") + passion  ("pati").  Both are ways of moving with, and being moved by, a person or situation; both are ways to orient ourselves. How different are these orientations in fact? A compass is set to be magnetized to true north.  Compassion resonates with others' feelings. Both are ways to find oneself.  Or lose oneself.  Or maybe finding and losing oneself are the same thing! Setting our minds and hearts on something outside of ourselves, we find a path and direction.

~Love your neighbor as yourself  ( Mark 12:31) We applaud people who run out to save a child from an oncoming school bus, or rescue old ladies from thugs, or run into a burning building to save a dog or cat or a person.  They risk their lives for others  and we praise them for their altruism.  We think of them as heros.  But are they? Altruism  comes from the word "alter" (other).  Al truists are other-centered in their actions.  But w hen asked what they were thinking and why they did what they did, the altruist invariably says something  like,  "I didn't even think; I just did what I had to".   They felt compelled to do it.  What exactly is so heroic about that?  Isn't  altruism just as compulsive and blind to potentially self-destructive consequences as self-centered acts like self-mutilation or drug addiction? Of course it is wonderful to help others avert disaster when we can.  But w hy is it...