The Empathy Trap
In a world of physical bodies
It’s important we know how to feel,
Feel our own sensation
And at least get a hint how others feel too.
Bodies after all have a language
That’s important to know how to read.
Mammals, especially in packs and herds
Excel at empathetic response.
We all have it hard-wired,
But we all learn to guard it.
Or at least need to, since it’s connected
To the pain center of the brain,
And pain must be kept in check.
Have you ever experienced intense pain?
Although rated on a scale of one to ten
Ten is impossible to ever reach
Because our capacity to endure the physical
Infinitely expands into the spiritual,
But I digress.
So empathy is feeling another’s pain
Because it directly connects to ours.
What could possibly be wrong with this
Leading it to entrapment,
And so require a temperate response?
Pain can make you do terrible things.
It can make you relate to a victim so much
You are driven to ride out and lynch,
Or march off to war in fanatic revenge.
It can make you riot and destroy
In the name of something
You may have never actually heard.
So what tempers this pain?
Love.
And how do we practice love?
The word is compassion,
With passion, “with suffering”,
Not in painful reaction but in shared space.
Compassion is connected
To the brain’s love center after all,
So unlike empathy it cannot be abused.
True love is love and not the lust
For hate or conquest, control or power.
True love is eternal,
While pain, no matter how horrible it can be
Is just a temporary thing.
It’s good when the going get tough
To always remember traps,
However strong or sweet we find them,
Are only temporary too.
(9/5/26)
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