“I learned that sometimes empathy is the enemy of compassion. I learned that compassion is moving towards another’s pain instead of away. It’s a skill, not a gut reaction.”
What is “moving towards another’s pain”? Given the context, it feels like she should be saying that compassion is alleviating pain, not feeling it.
You’re right that there’s something that doesn’t work about this. Thanks for the helpful feedback.
That said, I’m not going to make edits here right now, because I haven’t managed to figure out an edit I’d be happy with. I’ll keep mulling, and perhaps I’ll make edits at some future time.
Just to explain the intention of the line, “moving towards another’s pain instead of away” is intended to ambiguously refer both: (a) to adopting a mindset that allows you to mentally grapple with someone else’s pain without psychologically flinching away; and (b) to behaving in a way that aims at ameliorating the pain rather than physically fleeing.
As you note, the downside of ambiguity is that the phrase might either be unclear or it might have additional undesired disambiguations (perhaps reading as if it means “feeling a pain more deeply rather than less”).
This paragraph confused me:
“I learned that sometimes empathy is the enemy of compassion. I learned that compassion is moving towards another’s pain instead of away. It’s a skill, not a gut reaction.”
What is “moving towards another’s pain”? Given the context, it feels like she should be saying that compassion is alleviating pain, not feeling it.
You’re right that there’s something that doesn’t work about this. Thanks for the helpful feedback.
That said, I’m not going to make edits here right now, because I haven’t managed to figure out an edit I’d be happy with. I’ll keep mulling, and perhaps I’ll make edits at some future time.
Just to explain the intention of the line, “moving towards another’s pain instead of away” is intended to ambiguously refer both: (a) to adopting a mindset that allows you to mentally grapple with someone else’s pain without psychologically flinching away; and (b) to behaving in a way that aims at ameliorating the pain rather than physically fleeing.
As you note, the downside of ambiguity is that the phrase might either be unclear or it might have additional undesired disambiguations (perhaps reading as if it means “feeling a pain more deeply rather than less”).
Anyway, thanks again. Will think on this further.