Empathy is an Atrophied Muscle. Work it out.

This is a blogpost I’ve been meaning to write for a while. I first had this idea about 2 years ago, and just never really got around to writing my thoughts out. However, it seems more relevant than ever not only how important empathy is to a functional society, but also how it’s erosion is a sickening problem.

One day while stuck in traffic, bored out of my skull, I happened to glance at the car next to me. Inside that grey Jeep Grand Cherokee was another human being, slumped forward and staring blearily at the traffic ahead. Through the passenger side window, I witnessed a mother driving with a crying baby in the backseat. She seemed tense, firmly gripping the steering wheel, resigned to her fate of being stuck in traffic with a crying child. In that moment, my experience of the world grew a little bit. I happened to stumble into 2 other people’s stories as a random character. I was someone (to my knowledge) they didn’t see or pay attention to, just another car making traffic worse that day.

I must have been really bored, because that really stood out to me as some kind of breakthrough. I was not only not the main character of my own “story”, but I also play a role as an inconsequential NPC in most other peoples’. I often get wrapped up in my own life, and my own sphere of influence, that I very often lose track of the simple truth that I am one of billions on this planet. I make up just one story of countless in an ocean of joy, sorrow, love and loss.

Practicing Empathy

Since that day, I have wanted to try to exercise my empathy by picking a random car on the road and wondering who that person may be. What does their family look like? did they go to school? What kind of pet do they have? None of it can be proven, and being right isn’t the point. My goal when I do this is try to imagine someone else’s life. Try to see myself as the NPC.

This practice does a good job of reminding me that I share this planet with other people, and those people have their own lives, dreams, families, and core beliefs. Yes, even the Cybertruck owners.

Now, more than ever, we need to remember this. This simple idea that other people are existing alongside us and have every right to engage with that existence as we do. Practice empathy. Go and talk to new people and hear new stories.