A Genius at Life?

How do you rate your compassion? 

Do you really understand what compassion is? Do we need compassion in our lives before we fully experience life itself?

Occasionally the media reports on our apparent compassion fatigue, when they are suggesting we are tired of seeing suffering, bored with being asked to donate more cash.

Is that what compassion means to you?

Yet another call on your limited resources, someone else begging for funds? 

Do you get irritated, or maybe even angry when there are beggars on the street, real humans asking you for your hard earned money? Are you happier with the multitude of people posting their requests for cash online? Does the anonymous nature of online begging make it easier for you to ignore? Or maybe you give generously to the online beggars, because you recognise that at least they have spared you the embarrassment of looking into the eyes of one is suffering, one who has fallen through a gap in society? 

Online begging seems so much more acceptable in 2018, but why? 

The internet is chock full of people asking for us to Just Give - because they have a friend with cancer, they have a sick child, their club needs funds, the list of worthy causes is endless and it's a rare day when someone isn't asking for help online. 

What message does this on-line begging send? 

That so long as you have the technology and the skills begging is OK, generally socially acceptable, although there are rare exceptions. Recently I have seen one request challenged with harsh ugly language, when a woman was looking for vet fees to be paid for her dog. But this was one isolated case among a plethora of people asking for money. 

But still in 2018 there are those who are truly at rock bottom, those who can do nothing more than sit in on the pavement with a piece of cardboard announcing their desperation. 

Do they deserve nothing at all? 

Are they less worthy of compassion than the Cyber Beggars? 

Must real life beggars be driven off our streets - and if this is so, where do we send them? 

Maybe if we stop to have a conversation with a real life beggar, or any other person whose behaviour, actions or needs are a mystery to us maybe we will get closer to understanding their situation. For we must surely realise that we are unlikely to meet them online.

Lindsay Levin thinks that working on our compassion might be good for us all, and she has a few words worth listening to.