How do you feel like when you remember a sad memory and your tears trickle down your cheek, however you have no shoulder to cry on? Whenever my friend’s parting glance, my mother’s bitter tears, my fiancée’s heart-wrenching sobs, etc, flash my mind, the tight squeeze of a lump in my throat kills me and I feel like having someone to sympathize my pain. I mean only soothing words of a friend can pacify you. I do agree with Helen Keller as he said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” Don’t you concur with this statement?
Just imagine that you are sitting lonely in corner of a room with gloomy thoughts listening to a soulful song, “My pale face and scarred skin, my arms covered in cuts so true. I feel my life is nothing but a sin. These engraved scars, are just for you. I met you on that dark, harsh day, it was cold and a severe wind blew. I never really knew what to say. Don’t worry; these bleeding scars are for you. The days seem longer as you’re away. You’ll never know what I’ve been through.” Now, doesn’t the music put salt on your wounds? Yes, need someone to sympathize with you, don’t you?
Let’s imagine a tragic scene. For instance, a man has just lost his life in a terrorist act leaving his young wife and small children behind. Now, his wife, Shahla, is standing above his grave, guilt filling her chest and regret pumping through his veins. Tears stain her face and feels much grief, she doesn’t know if she will ever smile again.
Shahla falls to her knees and lets out a cry of pure agony and despair. She has not done anything wrong. She isn’t a criminal. She was just blind, blind to the good that her husband was doing, blind to his sense of justice. He doesn’t deserve death.
Shahla’s loud sobs fill the cemetery and echo in the vast space. She doesn’t know that so many people will be affected. Just looking back on the funeral she can still hear all the children sobbing and see the silent tears that plague all the adults.
One of his children scream saying, “He was everything we had left, we have no homes, no father, he was everything, he was a brother, a father, a role model… we cannot let his death be in vain.” His outburst inspires all the other children to shout hateful words to the murderers and cause more tears to spill over in their father’s name.
Finally, an old man, who seems to be his father, speaks; his words just broke everyone’s hearts. “The terrorists ruined so many lives, they are murderers. No one has the right to take another life, no matter how vile they are! I have always lived by this rule, but the terrorist aren’t even human, they are monster! And it is such a shame that he and many of our compatriots have to die with no fault.” Now, don’t you think that the victim’s family needs deep condolence and great sympathy?
This scenario reflects the life of Afghan citizens. Many men, women and children’s blood is shed with no fault. So, sympathy is also believed to be based on the principle of the powerful helping the vulnerable. The victim’s families need be sympathized and supported by government officials. The officials should take care of widows and orphans seriously and address their financial problems.
Sympathy can lead and be the cause of altruistic behavior. Altruistic behavior is when people who experience emotional reactions consistent with the state of another person and feel other-oriented – inclined to help other people in need or distressed. Naturally, people are more inclined to help those in need when they cannot easily escape the situation.
Whatever, I still doubt about the sympathy of our contemporary men. Many were, are and will be bullied, tyrannized, and slaughtered by their own fellows, however only few hearts felt the pain and their families’ emotions. Yes, Thomas Hobbes has aptly said: “man is man’s wolf” meaning that man preys upon man. He says “As machines, human beings pursue their own self-interest relentlessly, mechanically avoiding pain and pursuing pleasure.” In this world, many are as machine, bereft of human feelings, emotions, sympathies and dignities, pursuing pleasure at the cost of others’ lives. They threaten, torture and murder in order to benefit in every possible way.
Albert Einstein nicely states: A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.
No doubt, human beings are not only a mixture of bone and flesh; however they have a heart filled with feelings and emotions. I believe that if one experiences sympathy from his childhood, he will turn out a sympathetic person and vice versa. So, we have to also share our feelings and sympathy with our children so that they do the same with their fellows. In short, let’s feel our fellows’ emotions and feelings and sympathize them through our words and acts.