Friday, December 17, 2004

"Pity is a state of kindness excited by the sight of suffering." H.W. Beecher

Beecher has a way of defining things like few others I know. I have always felt the emotions one feels when sympathizing with a sufferer a very difficult thing to describe. The situations can be so grim but in the midst of it is a longing to be where the suffering abide. When I read this quote
"a state of kindness" it seemed so clear to me. Suffering humanity draws out, compels us, to do something kind to that suffering person. Even the most hardened person is drawn into that 'state of kindness' when viewing suffering or sorrow. The 'state of kindness' not only brings consolation to the injured but it is a medicine to us. We are lifted even though we are in the most distressing circumstances. A bitter, sweet frame of mind.
I can enter that state when I see dramatic needs, but I suspect the goal is to recognize quiet suffering with more and more sensitivity.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I find suffering a hard face to look into.
I naturally repel from it.

I think the way I feel in nursing homes describes it best. I know I should be there, I know they need companionship but deep down I am extremely uncomfortable by it all and often exhale greatly when I leave the building.

I more often want to run and shun suffering than embrace it where I see it...

FCB said...

"blah, blah" nothing, I agree with you. We all have differing gifts, talents, callings and abilities. To some dealing with teens and their bursts of emotion, venom filled attacks, hardware fashion, valley attitudes would be far harder than listening to a wheel chair bound elder.

Your first response was a good example of Beecher's definition of Pity. When you saw the leporus man you were "excited" motivated, inspired, to a "state of kindness" to look into his eyes and not his scars and greet him as a man and not a leper.
Pity or compassion is not merely an observant sympathy but a kindness motivated by suffering. We then experience, not intentionally but as collateral emotion, a gratification as well as the person we were kind to.