Bird Droppings January 10, 2026
Empathy: Does anybody have it anymore or is it gone from humanity?

Sixteen years ago, I was sitting in my room in Statesboro, back to school for my doctorate. It was a June morning, and I was wide awake, pondering. “It is still dark in Statesboro, Georgia, as I sit here pondering whether to go down and get breakfast or finish this dropping. It has been somewhat cooler here in South Georgia than where I have been living at home with a hundred-plus heat index nearly every day. I have two more classes and will be heading north around lunchtime. The local weathermen are predicting rain today and tomorrow, but I am hoping to dodge a few raindrops as I drive out. It can be rough in the flatlands when the summer storms whip through. But I do enjoy those few moments as the fronts mix and move across the smile of the moon, intermingled with the fluffy, scattered clouds in the starry sky.” Docbird 2010

I do miss walking about, taking in the tree-lined view of my backyard on a beautiful morning. I often wondered how it can be so cold on the winter mornings and yet so hot during the day. Even when the air conditioners are silenced, and many of the human noises are gone, I think the slight coolness helps numb the noise, as on some mornings it silences the tree frogs and crickets. Maybe everyone is huddled deeper under their covers, enjoying the last few minutes of coolness before venturing out into the day.

“The capacity for consciousness of ourselves gives us the ability to see ourselves as others see us and to have empathy with others. It underlies our remarkable capacity to transport ourselves into someone else’s parlor, where we will be in reality next week, and then, in imagination, to think and plan how we will act. And it enables us to imagine ourselves in someone else’s place, and to ask how we would feel and what we would do if we were this other person. No matter how poorly we use or fail to use or even abuse these capacities, they are the rudiments of our ability to begin to love our neighbor, to have ethical sensitivity, to see truth, to create beauty, to devote ourselves to ideals, and to die for them if need be. To fulfill these potentialities is to be a person.” Rollo May, Man’s Search for Himself, pp. 74-76

Empathy is a difficult word to discuss; for many, it does not exist, and others live each moment by this simple word. As I look at May’s idea of empathy, “a capacity for consciousness,” we are all conscious, I would think, but it is being able to see and feel in someone else’s shoes that is the key to this consciousness. In other words, love, perhaps, is an integral aspect of empathy. I feel empathy is crucial in any field dealing with people, be those nurses, teachers, pastors, or literally anyone who has daily contact with others. For these folks, empathy is a must. It is that gift that allows us to be closer to touching the soul of another.

“One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession,” Sophocles.

“Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” Scott Adams

“Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other – it doesn’t matter who it is – and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.” Mother Theresa

Some key aspects of empathy might include words such as kindness, love, and caring; these are all positive attributes of empathy. Adams says there is a ripple effect. I have used the pebble-in-the-pond story many times. However, when you toss a pebble into still water, the ripples emanate outward from the point of contact, going till they hit the edge of the pond, and in effect, they return, colliding with the ripples still coming. That small act continues many times over. Several years ago, a movie was made about small acts of kindness and their impact on a community, and I sit here thinking, what if? I recall Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, nearly fifty years ago, discussing how when you do something either good or bad for someone, ten others will know and spread the information, and hopefully it will always be good.

“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.” Kahil Gibran

“…successful learners also have insight into the motives, feelings, and behavior of others and the ability to communicate this understanding–in a word, empathy.” B. F Jones, The New Definition of Learning: The First Step to School Reform

The word empathy is defined as: “understanding so intimate that another readily comprehends the feelings, thoughts, and motives of one.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

A simple word that can be so powerful and can be a tool for teachers, nurses, and pastors. Empathy can be that key to the hearts and souls of others. Recently, while defining my own philosophy of teaching, I identified empathy as a key aspect. Simply put, having empathy makes for a more meaningful and believable teacher. I was talking with a good friend the other day and discussing the consequences of both of us seldom, if ever, having referrals. I have never given detention in ten years. Sitting there talking, I said, ” Is detention a meaningful consequence, for example, talking in class. One teacher told me, “What else do I do?” My answer was have class, so intrigued they are not talking, mesmerize them to a point of attention.

Most consequences are due to not teaching, not empathizing with students, not trusting, not understanding, and, most significantly, not caring. I have been asked about referrals, in-school suspension, and out-of-school suspension over the years. I have found that nine times out of ten, writing a referral and waiting a few days for a consequence effectively negates the consequence, so why not deal with the issue in class unless it is such that it needs serious attention and immediate action, and then go directly to administration. Then again, back to empathy: why is this issue even happening? Could it be for attention or a plea for help?

“In addition to the shared feeling and accurate understanding dimensions of empathy, some writers also focus on the empathetic person’s communication of understanding to the person whose ‘internal frame of reference’ he or she has grasped.” Kathleen Cotton, SIR, Developing empathy in children and adults

“Regardless of conflicting views about the appropriate place, if any, of ‘values education’ in the schools, people are generally able to agree that developing this capacity to understand, appreciate, and communicate meaningfully with others is an important and desirable goal. This enables us to move away from our differences of opinion about the specific CONTENT of “good character,” focusing instead on the PROCESS whereby people come to care about one another and communicate that caring through their behavior. “ Kathleen Cotton

One of those times, I wished I could say I wish I had said that. So often we forget that this interaction with others is critical to success in life, not only in school but also when you walk out the door to your home and to the store. Each moment we are alive, we interact with others unless we sit on a mountaintop somewhere, contemplating the passing of a cloud, as I sat there in the motel in Statesboro, Georgia, looking out my window, watching the clouds move against what is left of a smile of a moon. Not a bad thought, I wonder if there is a decent pay scale for that position sitting on a mountain.

We interact, and if those interactions are in an understanding way, in effect, that is empathy. There is so much more to gain for both people. Kathleen Cotton writes further on developing empathy in students and adults, and perhaps this is something we should pursue. I wonder if empathy 101 could be a required class in teachers’ education and training. I was discussing this a few days back with my sister, who also teaches, arguing that empathy is hard to teach as a book-learned aspect of life. Her thought, as she explained, is that it can be taught daily by example. We learn empathy by example. It takes an empathetic person to teach another person empathy. Maybe we should all try to empathize a bit more and set an example for others so they, too, can become empathetic. Maybe then I would not be offering daily. Please keep all in harm’s way on your minds and in your hearts. namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

docbird