Sisters and Brothers, Are We

I tuned into Oprah last Tuesday afternoon after weeks of not watching her programs. I followed a sense to turn on the television, and I’m sure glad I felt that nudge. Oprah’s two one-hour reality productions showed the horrors at various ground zeros of Katrina’s aftermath.

Oprah’s Angel Network showed us communities and interviewed our sisters and brothers other commercial news sources dare not reveal. This famous, highly resourced, cosmopolitan journalist is capable of telling it ‘like it is’ and displaying emotion to the world. If you can hear me Oprah, ‘Thank you!’

Months ago, Oprah interviewed her favorite interior designer, Nate Berkus, after his capture by waves of the tsunami in which he lost his brilliantly talented companion.

Are you feeling empathy as you read this, or maybe you’re remembering what empathy is? Empathic moments are so uncomplicated and instant; I no longer take empathy nor nurture for granted.

Empathic moments are a human's communion with another human as our mom and dad, sister and brother; wife, husband, significant other; the cab driver, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.

Examples of other animals and things with which we humans are capable of feeling empathic instants: a painting, a sculpture, a symphony; a bird, a flower, a river, a rock; characters in books, a baseball player, a rock star; a dolphin, butterfly, worm, bear, a pet.

Can we possibly unempathize from our sisters and brothers in Iraq or India or Africa or America? Or, from our sisters and brothers in hospital or hospice down the road? Or, from sisters and brothers who live next door?

This just dawned on me as I sit here writing: Do we need an intention to feel empathy? Do we in a split-second empathize whether or not we share beliefs with sisters and brothers, locally or globally, or in the same house?

We Earthlings breathe and move in such an exquisitely thoughtful universe that to consider it is a boggling distraction. And, within our universe, we possess astounding and yet unknowable capabilities for discerning choice and intention; for sensing what is meaningful and fair; for declaring we are doing the best we can; and, we still must remind ourselves—one reminder at a time, one after another in newsletters: You are my sisters and brothers.

Our constant curiosity is key
to watching what’s being created.
~ David Moorhead