Compassion.

Compassion.

To feel empathy for a fellow human being and the want to help. In a world that is take, take, take, all the time, compassion seems to be lost. So I ask this question, what would you do to help a fellow human being?

Would you help a person out if you know they are of a different faith from you? Doesn’t matter if they don’t have the same believe system than you, if you saw them struggling, would you help them? Would you put your own thoughts and opinions aside to help?

Would you help a person out if they have a different skin colour than you own?

Would you help a family in need even if they lived a different lifestyle than you own?

Would you teach your children that everyone is created equal? And that we are all unique in our special way? Would you teach them to respect themselves and others?

Living in a Special Needs World, you tend to have more compassion for people. This is just my opinion. I find that since we are striving for one common thing, acceptance, we tend to be more open to other people. For me, the way someone lives their life, practices religion or who they look isn’t an issue for me. As I am trying to make sure that my children and all of their abilities are accepted. And that takes compassion. The reason why I say this, is how can you expect people to be compassionate to your cause, if you, yourself don’t follow that edict. Those questions I put forth above, are ones that we all need to ask ourselves, when we think about how we want our children to be treated.

Hate is a learned idea. You learn things like love and hate at an early age. You can have your own thoughts on stuff. Like hating brussels sprouts or the weather. But to hate someone who is different from you and lack the basic compassion for someone because you don’t understand them is a learned thing. One of the things about being a parent is to teach our children right from wrong. We need to have a generation that is accepting. Accepting of those who around us. We need to teach compassion. We need teach our children that it’s ok to help fellow human beings, despite differences. If we want them to understand empathy for others, we must show them. If we want the world around us to show us compassion and empathy to our causes, it must be taught and learned.

I, myself, try to keep an open mind. Passing judgment is part of being human. We all do it. The thing to remember is, if you pass judgment solely on the basis of hate and fear, maybe you need to take a step back. Educate yourself. Let go of that fear of the unknown.