Cut and Paste, Start Again ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An introduction of sorts I'm working on a new project, well, I've been working on it for a long time now and it's just finally looking like something that might pull together. It was supposed to be a comic, but it's transformed into something else, a link will be posted when the site is done, It's called "Dear Stranger".... anyways, was trying to come up with an introduction tonight and got this.
Let�s talk about empathy, and walls. When I was younger the metaphor of the wall was one that I identified with strongly. I busied myself at the task of building emotional, psychic, walls to keep myself from getting hurt- all the while hoping some one would come along and take the time to break them down, that someone would come find me. The princess in the tower fantasy. What I�ve learned is something that most people know, whether they accept it or not: walls come with their own brand of hurt. They hold pain in just as much as they keep it out. They close you in with yourself and allow you to remain cold to the world. There are times in our lives when this seems like all we really can do, for the sake of self preservation. But, when you close yourself off from the world, you shield yourself from a very important truth: your hurts are not the only ones that exist in the world, and more importantly, they are not so unique. You are neither the first not the last to experience all of the things that you are trying to hide from the world. It seems like the safe, and even the strong thing to do to close ourselves in with our pain, but in doing so we deny ourselves something that to my mind is far more valuable than the safety you feel shut in on yourself. And that is the empathetic experience that comes from knowing your own pain well enough to see it in others and allowing yourself to share the burden, rather than carrying it all on your own. The process of breaking down my own walls has taught me a great deal about empathy� Or maybe it�s the other way around, and empathy has taught me a great deal about breaking down walls. I�m not sure which, but no matter. Empathy, emotional mirroring, the ability to feel along side another person, requires a level of emotional vulnerability and exposure that not many are comfortable with. It requires a willingness to live life with fewer walls. To allow your emotional skin to exist in its natural state of permeability takes a great deal of courage. But to allow oneself to experience strong emotions in unison with another human being, whether it be pain and sadness, or joy and elation, to allow oneself to resonate with the world- to truly see, and accept, that both your burdens and your joys are understandable, mirror images of burdens and joys experienced the world over- is worth the vulnerability that comes with letting your guard down. �When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.� -Tennessee Williams So, dear stranger, I�m asking you to let your guard down." 00:05 - 16 May 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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