The source of my Empathy...

“Bangalore traffic is sooo bad”, “This traffic jam sucks”, etc etc. You might often hear people say these, especially when are stuck in the traffic jam. I was also no exception to this until the day I saw a T shirt bearing the following quote “You are not stuck in the traffic but you are the traffic jam”. After getting to know my position (I e my contribution to the traffic jam), my frustration reduced and I started becoming more tolerant with the traffic nuisance that exist in the city. After all, how can I be so harsh on myself??

We all tend to be fussy about people around, their choices and actions. We can be very critical to mean when it comes to responding certain things people do. But do we stop a moment to ask how clean, perfect we are to criticize others? This is not a new thought and the following quote pretty much says it all “Be the change you want to see in the world ”.. So if you don't want to see traffic jam, don't be a part of traffic. How many of us can practice that? People like Gandhi tried and possibly succeeded to some extend. He tried to introspect and self correct to be in a moral position to pass any comments let alone mean and critical ones. But it is easier said than done.

Since I am no Gandhi and don't plan to become one either, I choose a slightly different path. I just stop being over critical. Even if I do (like a lot of my blog posts), those are just my observations for intellectual pleasure and don't intend to offend anyone with those. My source of Empathy, forgiveness at times, being accommodative is very self centric in nature. Since I do have fallacies, why bother criticizing others is the path I often take. Also, I don't let criticisms get on to me quite easily (Except those which has merit in them) because I am quite sure I am not living with too many Gandhies around ;-)

In essence, It is very easy to have ideologies but difficult to follow all of them to the fullest. I am aware of the mismatches I have between my ideologies and practice. That awareness helps me to empathize with others' fallacies. After all, in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.