https://www.facebook.com/Upworthy/videos/2097961983577982/
When this old world starts getting me down…
I reach for something positive to ingest. One of websites that fuels me with goodness is Upworthy. I get their daily emails, which is a bright spot in my day.
The video I sent is a classroom of teens who are building empathy through story telling. They tell a story of someone else in their class. Literally, putting their shoes in another’s.
This is really powerful and something I think we all should/could do.
This site has many cool categories:
Being Well
Culture
Breakthroughs
Real Life
The Conversation
Does it remind you of a long lost place? :)
© 2026 – SoulSequel
12 responses to “Do you want to teach and or learn empathy?”
Hhhhmmm, that didn’t copy well. Try this:
http://www.upworthy.com/videos
I went to the link and was drawn to the video on the guy who left the white supremacist movement. I like the way that one ended.
I subscribe to Upworthy too. It IS a positive dose of good. Maybe our exposure to good is an important element in shaping our general perspective. It makes sense that constantly exposing oneself to negative will feed that negative growth.
keep pumping in the good Gina. Maybe things will break twards the positive once a critical mass is achieved.
@spitfire3dc I haven’t looked at the that one yet. I have seen other stories like that, and I love them. I have the capacity for forgiveness.
It reminds me of some of the exercises I did with the kids at the camp: inviting them to walk in the shoes and see through the eyes of others. Even if you didn’t agree with the actions and conclusions of others, you could at least see where they were coming from.
Empathy is not a new concept. It’s just a concept that takes a back seat when society goes through cycles of rampant worship of the self.
We are very quick to see that the strength of the society is the individual. But things sort of run off the tracks when it comes time to acknowledge that the strength of the individual, is the society.
Almost every single thing that we like to use to isolate and busy ourselves away into our own little island of self . . . came from individuals pulling together into a society.
We are quick to “take” our rights and privileges and opportunities from the society — but frequently very slow to “give” back into the system that despite obvious human flaws, gives us so much.
@griz Empathy isn’t new, but it seems lacking here at times. The good thing about this darkness that we are in right now, it has started a fire and it is growing and growing. Many people are starting to realize how important community is. I feel very hopeful.
@Gina
Unless we want to abolish freedom (including the freedoms that you enjoy), we HAVE to develop personal strategies for dealing with people exercising their right to be less empathetic than we might like.
Or exercise their “right” to not come and massage us where we like to be massaged!
I know the US just LOVES LOVES LOVES to “play sides”.
But the problem is that no one “side” has all the answers . . . or even the ability to maintain a sustained run. The liberal stance can be WAY WAY too “squishy” and kumbaya. The conservative stance can be WAY WAY too stiff and rigid, unfeeling, disassociative, uncaring. Balance is utterly absent.
The problem is that when either “side” gets into power, they push to the ultimate extent of their vision . . . while showing very little (ahem!) empathy for peaceful engagement with “the other side”.
It’s like two kids clamoring to prove who can move the biggest rock . . . while totally overlooking that together they could move an even bigger rock!
It’s almost as if the nation built on war, cannot in any way stomach any concessions of peace within itself.
We need to guard that “being hopeful” doesn’t just mean we’re hopeful things are starting to go “the way of our side”. Any forward movement in a nation, HAS to be empathetic to BOTH sides.
@griz Empathetic to both sides of what? I push for love and inclusion; which should go both ways.
Check this out, The Actual Forgotten Middle Class
@Gina
In the specific case we were talking about, both sides of the political spectrum. Each side seems totally head-blind to anything but their own feelings and agendas — with the thinly-veiled assertion that things will only be “OK” when they are totally victorious and their enemy is totally defeated.
But the problem is . . . that “both are America”. Essentially, America will only totally win, when America is totally defeated. (And the terrorists applaud!)
The problem is that each “side” has both elements of truth, and self-serving political skulduggery going on.
I will admit that your proffered video certainly has the former going for it.
But now the challenge! Can you admit that it also has the former going against it?
This isn’t me trying to “defeat your position”. It’s more trying to get you to see the dog endlessly chasing it’s own tail: the teeter-totter that certainly generates a lot of motion . . . but never really goes anywhere.
And this will begin with your admission that this video has both truth . . . and political skulduggery going on it it.
@griz Seriously, “Unless we want to abolish freedom”….lordy, you go to extremes some times with your explanations.
@Gina
I acknowledge your dismissal of everything I offered. But a fair question for you, is why you might have felt the need to dismiss it all?
There is an endemic issue here — namely that “freedom” for many . . . doesn’t go both ways. It’s only good when it’s coming to us; and not when it’s being extended to others.
I stand by my assertion that a successful stance in life HAS to recognize freedoms both coming and going. Without this, we are just spinning our wheels.
why did I think of you when I saw these?
https://yeswevibe.com/collections/mandala
@spitfire3dc Those are super cool! I need new boots.