I’m starting with the (wo)man in the mirror.

On this planet there is no us species versus a them alien species.

There is no other entity with some whole other set of biological and and sociological needs we have to fight over resources that can’t be shared.

We all want the same basic things from life.

We don’t want to die from viruses.

We don’t want to infect our neighbors, friends and family with viruses that could kill them.

We want to be able to go to work safely.

We want our lives to matter to other people.

We want to be understood.

Here is the issue:

Even though we know all of those things we are still fighting about how to make all of those things happen.

Cooperation requires communication and the missing link seems to be the give and take of the understanding and wanting to be understood part.

There is too much wanting to be understood and not enough wanting to understand.

Not just from this side or that side not trying to understand but from all sides not trying to understand.

When you are the one talking you won’t learn anything new.

When you riot or get angry you for sure won’t be understood in a way that will influence people to care about you.

When we go out and violate rights to gain rights- it won’t work.

Maybe if we stoped violating each other’s rights as an attempt to force being understood we would all be able to peacefully understand.

Your perception (input and what you witness) of the world around you forms your perspective (outlook and what you assume to be true).

But other people are perceiving things that you are not because they are living a different life in different skin and have different home lives etcetera.

This means that their outlook and perspective will be different and it will also mean you may never understand through personal experience what they know to be true.

So once again we come to the conclusion that empathy is what it takes to gain understanding. And empathy will always be understanding from a distance because you can’t live another persons experiences as them. You can only experience your own existence.

Just understand there are different realities of what day to day life is like for other people and you will be seeing through more empathetic and understanding eyes.

Language has everyone confused. Especially lately.

Everyone is just in desperate need of empathy because everyone is saying they want the same thing it just getting camouflaged because everyone is speaking at once and no one is listening.

Empathy has no political party.

Empathy is not gender specific.

Empathy is not racist.

Empathy is human.

Empathy is even logical.

Empathy starts in the mirror and it can heal the world.