This article includes a really good explanation for why self-reflection is extremely important, as much for oneself as for interpersonal relationships and the good/betterment of society. It led me to conclude that for some of us, it is when we encounter the (somehow still) shocking and constantly unsettling dearth of imagination, empathy, compassion, etc., in others that’s been cultivated and fostered in us that we opt to fall behind a shield of self-imposed solitude. If we are not mindful of the barrier or become too battered to go without, and we begin to retreat too often and/or for too long, it becomes a counterintuitively burdensome weight of angry and/or hopeless thoughts and feelings about all kinds of injustices, and we descend into cycles of high-functioning mental and emotional disorders and distress. Especially now that it seems the world is spiraling off its axis more and more each day, we have to collectively use this ability for contemplation not as proverbial bubble wrap but as fortification, and as a lovingly polished weapon.
I also watched an interesting doc on empathy. It made the concept and banality of evil all the more insidious and upsetting---one of those things that giveth and taketh away hope in equal amounts, i.e., the catch-22 of watching documentaries, like life itself. Now I know the subconscious reason why I consciously avoided them for so long.
Long story short, brains and minds are nuts, and it’s important to find the right balance of being for being inside and outside of oneself. That’s what I’m doing now. I hope---and hope again that I’m not using up my quota of the word---that people can find the strength to do the same.
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