The newly built waterfront (top) and the disparity that exists just
a few minutes away



On my H.O.P.E. trip we learned a lot about compassion, the shear opposite of pity. Putting yourself in someone’s shoes and feeling for them, not in the way that you are any better than them, but in the way that you are both equal as humans. At the beginning of our weeklong journey, I expressed the concern that I wouldn’t be able to respond to people because “I don’t understand what it’s like.” Sister Julie said something to me that I never forgot the rest of the week. She said that these people experience the same emotions we do, anger, fear, loneliness, hope, faith, etc. She said to think of a time you felt like that, and you’ll know what to say. This was such good advice and I found I knew what to say in many situations that week. Though I do believe that sometimes it is impossible to understand something unless you’ve been there, I learned that it IS possible to be compassionate with people and how they are feeling. For the rest of the week I didn’t look at the homeless people with pity at all. I looked at them as human beings with feelings just like my own. I got angry right along with them. I discussed with two homeless men the injustices that exist in Camden, we shared anger over the fact that the government gave their city money to build an aquarium, concert center, and minor league baseball field but would give no money for schools, police, and fire. At that moment I understood what compassion was. I found myself as angry and confused as they were. I felt the unfairness that they were thrust into such a situation, with little opportunity in their life. I didn’t weep for them, I simply felt for them. I loved them because they are humans and should be loved.

I understand what its like to be pitied. I know, all too well, that look you get when you tell someone you have a life threatening illness. It is one of “poor you” and I never blame anyone for pitying me, but I prefer they wouldn’t. I have heard so many times “I feel so bad.” Why should you feel bad? I certainly don’t. I’d prefer they stand with me in my hope for a cure, I’d prefer they put themselves in my shoes, love me and feel anger with me at the fact that kids have to suffer with illness, understand where I’m coming from when I get so worked up when people don’t take care of their bodies. That is what compassion is, standing in someone else’s place, feeling what they feel, not looking down on them and pitying them. Hopefully, when you are compassionate towards others, you are able to take away something positive from feeling their pain.

At the end of the week I was exhausted. I was carrying a lot of emotional baggage of the people I met. But this wasn’t a bad thing, it gave me passion! It allowed me to recognize how much I truly cared about other people, and it allowed me to make promises to myself to keep learning about other’s hardships, to not forget about them, and most importantly, to understand how someone feels and work towards acting in a way that doesn’t offend those feelings. I thought that I could only understand my own struggles, but with compassion I could at least attempt to understand that of others, and that is an important lesson.

http://thesowhatlife.com