On 1/13/16, I watched the TED Talk of Gregory Boyle, “Compassion and Kinship,” a founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries. He explained how we should form a relationship with others so that we can come together as one rather than being enemies towards each other. Specifically he claimed that having kinship and compassion breaks down barriers it allows people who don’t fit society’s standards know that their life has value, meaning, and worth. As he said, “How can we achieve a certain kind of compassion that stands in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgement at how they carry it, for the measure of our compassion lies not in our service of those on the margins but in our willingness to see ourselves and kinship with them and mutuality.” Although some people believe that once they choose to make bad decisions, they have …show more content…
He accomplished this by creating Homeboys Industries, which gives gang members jobs and allows them to learn how to get along with other rival gang members. I have mixed feelings, because I agree with how he is going about helping these gang members, but while they are trying to change their lifestyle they still have to go back to the same places where they live and could possibly be killed. I would suggest that he builds some dormitories for them to live in until they are able to afford a better place to live. Some might object to helping gang members of course on the grounds that it puts your life endanger. Yet I would argue that making a positive impact on negative people lives is worth the risk. Overall, I believe that Boyle’s has reached his goal of bringing together rival gang members and helping the change their lives around -- an important point given that they have accomplished so much. For example, they’re opening a restaurant in LAX airport and they have their own
The definition of compassion: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. As this definition shows compassion shows concern for other that every person would love to have. In The Chosen written by Chaim Potok, Mr. Potok really presents compassion in his book. Not only does he display compassion in one of his character but in every single one he gives them compassion that is expressed in different ways. He goes into detail example of compassion with each of his characters and really emphasizes the true meaning of compassion. Three main character that he shows compassion through in different ways are, Reuven, Mr. Malter and Reb Sanders.
I had a few of the excerpts that I enjoyed but one of my favorites was Caring Makes Us Human by Troy Chapman. Just the title had me interested because I am someone who cares about other no matter what they have done in their past. This specific excerpt talks about how prisoners started taking care of a cat and felt grace. These prisoners have done some bad things to go to prison yet they can take care of this helpless animal and treat him like a king. Even the guard joined in or enjoyed watching the prisoners just simply talking to each other while petting the cute cat. They are the perfect example of what we should be as humans. Caring for people and things is what makes us human and a lot of people do not understand that yet. Everyone needs
“Compassion is always, at its most authentic, about a shift from the cramped world of self-preoccupation into a more expansive place of fellowship, of true kinship.” These words come from the book Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, written by Gregory Boyle, an American Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, an organization that provides employment training and support to former gang members. I was first introduced to Father Boyle’s work during my final semester at College of the Holy Cross in “Contemporary Christian Morality”, a favorite course of mine that examined the fundamental ethics of moral agency, human freedom, conscience, sin, suffering and virtue. It was a book that has continued to stay with me for
Compassion has became something rare in our society, and something that a lot of people lack. The author, Barbara Lazear Ascher, explains to us that compassion is not a character trait, but rather something that we learn along the way with the help of real life situations we encounter, such as the ones she encountered herself. Ascher persuades her audience that compassion is not just something you are born with by using anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and allusions.
Based on Rawls’s definition of social cooperation as something achievable for persons with certain moral capacities and sense of justice, Kittay’s understanding of moral ethics emphasized on sense of attachment, empathetic attention to others’ needs and responsiveness to those needs. Such attachment and the capacity to respond to vulnerability, show that humans are by nature not individualistic, but collaborative. Kittay also pointed out the fact that everyone may become dependent and may require support from others at that point. Such understanding, and the need to be assured that if we become dependent we would be taken care of, ought to be acknowledged when we discuss moral ethics of human nature. Women for example, make sacrifices on their maternal roles to provide care, and the ability to care have been politically fought for in many countries, as people widely value the dependency relationships between human
How is family loyalty portrayed in The Chosen by Chaim Potok? The main male characters show an array of dedication towards their families and Jewish congregation. The Malters and Saunders both are tied down to two different Jewish communities, although using their friendship, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders seem to bring two different views on the world together. Their fathers, David Malter and Reb Saunders, show that they hold two very different opinions on political occurrences, but both seem to respect each other.“I am not surprised you have such a head. Your father(Reuven's father) is a great scholar. But what he writes, ah what he writes!” (126). Because of different situations between both families, the Saunders, the Malters , and
In his piece, “Human Dignity”, Francis Fukuyama explores the perception of human dignity in today's society. This perception is defined by what Fukuyama calls “Factor X”. This piece draws attention to how human dignity has been affected recently and its decline as we go into the future. Using the input given by the Dalai Lama in his piece, “Ethics and New Genetics”, the implementing of factor X and human dignity on future generations will be explored. Through the use of the pieces, “Human Dignity and Human Reproductive Cloning by Steven Malby, Genetic Testing and Its Implications: Human Genetics Researchers Grapple with Ethical Issues by Isaac Rabino, and Gender Differences in the Perception of Genetic Engineering Applied to Human Reproduction by Carol L. Napolitano and Oladele A. Ogunseitan, the decline on the amount of human dignity found in today's society as well as the regression in Factor X that can be found today compared to times past. Society's twist on ethics as a result of pop culture and an increase in genetic engineering has caused for the decline in the amount of dignity shown by the members of society and the regression of Factor X to take hold in today's society.
In Barbara Asher’s essay “On Compassion” the two women were both compelled by different motives; one was fear and the other was compassion. The first woman with her child waiting at the street crossing was terrified of the scraggly looking African American man starring at her child. So out of terror Asher says the women was “…bearing the dollar like a cross” which means she was holding it away from and her child as if trying to tell the man to stay back without speaking. Also the woman tightly gripped the handle of her stroller, going into defense mode. This brings the readers to believe that this was a racial issue and quite stereotypical, just a middle class woman walking with her blonde haired baby when approached by a different colored
In Anthony Kuhn article, A Harrowing, Mountain-Scaling Commute for Chinese Schoolkids. Kuhn conveys to the audience how many young Chinese children in the Sichuan providence in Southwest China have to hike close to 4 miles just to get to school and basic civilization. In addition to a long hike the climb itself, is dangerous and in many parts the children have to climb ladders and use ropes just too stay to the side of the mountain. In addition to the dangerous climb many children have a hard time getting to school as well as getting families to let their children go to school. Even though the commute is quite difficult, some schools in the providence provide dorms for kids to stay at during the school week, and then return home to their families
In todays society it is ordinary to live life in a bubble; we are concerned about our families and friends but nobody else. As a child I remember asking my mother about all the other kids out in the world without parents or food to fill their empty stomachs. I was informed at a young age that not everyone is as fortunate as I am. A little over a year later, my family would make the decision to adopt a baby boy from Guatemala. Not only did I learn to not take advantage of the luxuries I have, I also discovered that family doesn’t always have to be blood.
I researched many different aspects of compassion from sources such as TED Talks and The ProQOL Manual from Goggle Scholar. Ideas that I have got from those two sources sources confirmed and extended my belief about compassion. They also gave me more new, unique ideas to think about as they gave new perspective. I first like to extend what I said about my view in human condition proposal as when Joan Halifax talks about compassion and true meaning for empathy in Ted Talks; her idea and my idea had many similarities despite our different life experiences.
The central theme in this book is have empathy and compassion even when others would not. The older Scythes who take on apprentices try to teach them to take life, but never for sport. Not all Scythe wish to do what is morally correct, some just love to kill. Feelings are human nature, “Remorse. Regret. Sorrow to great to bear. Because if we didn’t feel those things, what monsters would we be?”(Shusterman, 3). This explains how without empathy we are capable of terrible actions. Scythes gleaned people’s family’s immunity, but did little to comfort the gleaned. Scythe Faraday said “You stood your ground for a boy you barely knew. You comforted him at the moment of his death, bearing the pain of the jolt. You bore witness, even though no one
... of the importance of both compassion and courage as equal parts of the same solution can be quantified by the number of bodies stacked in piles on the sides of streets throughout Rwanda and all around the world. Yet, when one notices the resilience of the suffering it cannot go without notice that one must be both strong and good in order to protect and love others. These two capacities work in unison to create the mightiest of warriors, the greatest humanitarians, and the most based humans of all. Despite all skepticism, something that will always ring true throughout time is that humans, left to their own devices, will always degenerate into the same ghoulish hashing that have always vexed the realm of mortals without. That is, unless each individual makes the consciousness decision to live a life backed by the defining character traits of courage and compassion.
When we sacrifice our time to help someone in need, whether it is a great or small need, we become a part of their life and can help alleviate heavy burdens. We feel good for looking outside ourselves and contributin...
There will always be someone you meet in your life who’s life is much harder and less privileged than yours, just like there will always be someone who’s life is much better than yours. The best thing you can do, is try to be kind and help those who do not have the resources you may have. In Janice Erlbaum’s book, Have You Found Her, she convinces us that by using our resources, experiences, and privileges, we can make a large impact in others’, less fortunate, lives.