Tomorrow

"...We were the Kings and Queens of Promise..."

Today

"...I need a hero to save me now..."

F sharp

I think music is crucial to understanding and perception. Especially when it comes to aspects of love. Today, we have more love songs than we know what to do with, because love is important and multi-faceted. The part of love that influences compassion isn't very often reflected in songs, but when it is, oh when it does...

It's

I've talked myself in circles. I've talked this all to death.

So now of course it's:

http://www.jellotime.com/

Cheer

We (Original poetry by me)

I will possess you

forever

in my mind & heart

I promise

(I love you)

(Written 9/10/09)

We were the many,

We were the few,

We were the broken,

calling to you.

We were the homeless

Sickness, and bound,

We were the peoples,

you rescued and found.

(Written 10/6/09)

I suppose

if it's true

if we're born

this way

then it must

be true also

that we

are

[this way]

(Written 11/9/09)

Obvious

The most important cause of compassion is love. Without love there is no empathy. Without love and empathy there is no compassion. You cannot love your parents, your siblings, your children, without caring for them on a deep level. On such a deep level that when they're hurt you feel an insatiable obligation to make it better. To make them feel better. Often times you love them so much, you would do anything for them.

This isn't limited to just family either. Over this past summer I was fortunate enough to participate in the three day retreat provided by Campus Ministry where we just got to go around helping people. On the first day we played kickball and tag with students at a school in a neighboring town. On the second we had a "Water Day" which consisted of us getting completely soaked while playing all sorts of games with children living with cerebral palsy. On the third we went back to the school in the neighboring town and we had a festival of sorts. These three days were spent being completely selfless. We were there, purely for the kids. Purely to make the kids happy. And it turned out to be a not so selfless venture. I was rewarded for my compassion, by the unconditional love of a two year old boy, who we taught how to throw water balloons at the older children. Both days, he refused to let me leave, and let me tell you that little boy had a strong grip for such small hands. Now when I look back, I think not about what I did for those children, but what they did for me. A few of us from that trip are going to chaperone next year's adventures. Purely because it was fun for us. Not so selfless, sure, but so driven by compassion it's unfathomable.

I love the act of holding a door for someone. I love when it happens to me and when I do it for someone else. I don't know why I'm so fixated on this particular action, beyond that it's such a simple act of kindness. It's just a simple expression of love for another human being.

I live very much by the principle of the golden rule. I know what it's like to be treated like nothing, like less than nothing. (It's not fun to say the least.) I'm not going to do that to someone. Partially because I don't think people deserve that and of course partially because I really don't want to be treated like that every again. Maybe that's why the act of holding open a door is so huge for me. Because it's love, compassion, and respect all in one... I don't know.

Love drove the creators of To Write Love On Her Arms (a charity to help those suffering from depression and addiction http://www.twloha.com/) to care about the suffering in the world. They loved their one friend so much, and let their compassion drive their actions, to help her. Where love is a direct cause of compassion, care is a direct result. Love for the children of Uganda, led the creators of Invisible Children (http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php) to lobby for so many years for the end of the longest running genocide in the world, and it leads them to continue on lobbying and fundraising, and sending as much aid as possible over there to help those children. The slogan on a TWLOHA t-shirt reads "Love is the Movement." It's taken from the title (and chorus) of a Switchfoot song. It's not only a slogan, it's a message for the world. Love is the movement. The movement towards compassion, towards empathy, towards kindness.

I work at an after school care program for kids age five to ten on Fridays. Every week I go, I see needy kids. Not needy in the sense that they don't have toys, clothes, good school supplies, etc. Most of these kids are varying degrees of attention starved. Not because their parents don't love them, or their siblings don't love them, but because they are shunted from place to place throughout the week in groups of hundreds of children just to receive the care that their parents cannot provide and also be able to work as is needed. This past Friday was a Francis, Michael and Karena day. Francis is five, and very energetic. Mostly the older girls in the program take care of him and the other members of his age group. But on Friday he jumped around and hit his head on the metal doorknob. The trip to get an icepack soon became an hour of constant company. But he needed it. When he was ready to go off and play with his stuffed moose alone, he did, but up to that point my hand was locked in his. Karena, age seven, was not injured on Friday. In fact, she was more energetic than usual. I was her personal jungle gym, and sofa for an hour. She needed the attention, so I gave it to her. Michael is ten, and I'm positive he thinks he is Mr. Cool. But he needed my attention on Friday too. He thinks Phineas and Ferb is fantastic (as he should) and so I let him spew out all his favorite quotes and storylines, all the while consistently agreeing at the awesomeness of that television show. I didn't help his Mr. Cool perception, I'm afraid, because he thinks it's the greatest thing that an adult like me (if you could call me that) loves the show too. I love these kids, Francis, Karena, Michael and all the others. I don't work there for the money (because I don't get paid much) but because these kids all need me. Yes, that sounds supremely selfish. But only without the affirmation that I definitely need them too. No matter how hard my week has been, I go there and am surrounded by childish joy all afternoon, and then no matter how exhausted I am when I get home, I come home with a smile on my face.

Love is the greatest, most important cause of compassion. It is the umbrella over all the kindness in the world. It is the driving wind of empathy. And it is really essential to the idea of "goodness in our world." We don't know where love comes from, we don't know where good comes from, we don't know where compassion lives in our physical bodies. But we do know all these things exist, and reside in each and every person. "To infinity and beyond."