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so the language of empathy, what i can say about that? for one, it was a very foreign language to me when i got here, it was almost as if those in the rooms were speaking in clicks of the tongue and whistles, as i had very little frame of reference for what they were trying to tell me. these days, well i have picked up an ear for empathy and am still learning how to speak the language. before i get moving into all of that, i need to do a quick shout-out:

Sic Boy,
Congrats on  16  17 years of
consecutive days of No Matter Whats!

back to empathy. when i got here i was quite certain that empathy = sympathy = pity. displaying any of those interchangeables was a sign of weakness, and when my associates seemed to fall into that trap, i would pounce. i had learned to feign sympathy and used pity as a weapon against my imagined adversaries, but i never really felt either one. it is odd, that when i think back to how i was, that i am starting to see how close i emulated a sociopath. that was, however, then and this is now. that person, while not dead and certainly not sleeping is being transformed into a human being, rather than a had to use automaton.
do i do empathy perfectly today? not by any means, as one of the men i sponsor would love to point out 😇. what i do show today, is genuine feeling and compassion for those around me, and empathy as well as sympathy. pity? well unless i am, living in self-pity, that is generally not used very often by me. i know that sympathy, empathy and pity are not the same, and each has its own “language.” when i see one of my peers suffering i can show sympathy towards them, as well feel their pain. as much as i would like to, i cannot however remove that pain and suffering. as i consider that, i realize the notion of relieving pain, goes more to pity rather than empathy. so i guess i am learning to be fluent in this brave new world i find myself in. it is a good day to be clean and a better one top let those i share my recovery with, that there is another day to be had, clean, no matter how much it hurts today.

∞ DT ∞