The Importance Of Empathy And Emotions

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Empathy is when I am able to feel or share feelings with another person. In order to do this, to truly do this I would have to had live through exactly they did or had some telepathic emotional connection to them. Only, our minds aren’t designed this way, we can’t truly ever feel real empathy. I can’t even begin to imagine know what it would take to really feel empathy and the emotions it would give me. Empathy doesn’t really doesn’t really exist; there is no way to actually feel what another person is going through, the closest we can come to empathy is visualizing another person’s perspective, in other words, I don’t agree with Wallace that empathy is the most important thing to learn in college, how to care is. I can’t actually feel empathy …show more content…

It reminds me of this onetime, I was making a joke in a group of friends. Granted I should have been nicer about it but I just got caught up in the moment and I singled out one of my friends to be the punch line of the joke. Only I didn’t realize how much a few words could really affect someone till a little later when I was reflecting on the day. I started to visualize my jokes as a bystander, they were pretty funny but that’s all I can remember. Then I started to visualize me self from the point of view of the person I singled out… My jokes didn’t seem funny, they were aggressive almost. They made me feel disgusted almost, I know better than to act that way towards others. After all, I’ve been the butt of many jokes, some of them I found absolutely hilarious, some not so funny or kind. So I know from experience how they might feel, but how am I to know for sure since I’m not them. I can’t bear to see my friends hurt like that so I text him up “Hey, sorry about the rude jokes earlier hope they didn’t hurt ur feelings! ” He replied sometime later “Nah man, it’s cool. The jokes were on point today!! ” In my mind I was relieved to hear he liked them but I still couldn’t shake the feeling I was being horrible, even though the empathy I felt was wrong, I still cared enough to ask how he was. I can’t feel this way about something not directly relating to me because I …show more content…

Unlike Wallace, I don’t think empathy is all that important because it’s not possible, at least if you care you can feel something close to empathy and sympathy. Even I sometimes find myself not caring for such things ranging from homework all the way up to natural disasters. It’s that sense of “Who cares doesn’t bother me none.” I have to learn to avoid these thoughts, and empathy doesn’t apply there because I’ve never been through a serious natural disaster. It’s the thought that I can’t just feel sympathetic for someone but that I have to care for the well being of everyone around me. That’s what needs to be taught, empathy is just a fantasy but caring enough to act on those feelings is something that I try and strive for. It’s not easy to do and I find myself loosing grip of my selflessness, but I’ve had to teach myself that caring is more important than everything else. It’s how those people I watch on the news get out and help those in need, like victims of natural disasters. They have learned to care, something I need in my educational “Food Pyramid” of

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