Being sympathetic

It’s rather peculiar how one thing leads to another.
Recently, I have been having my fair share of trouble with “getting connected”.
First, the modem died on me. Followed by the malfunctioning splitter. After that, the old modem decided to give me some issues by dc-ing as and when it feels like.
Today, I went home, and my phone line died.
Talk about testing my patience.
What’s weirder though, was that 30 mins later, my internet came alive, despite the line being dead.
I supposed there’s silver lining after all.

I subsequently told a friend of mine, whom laughed, and said that only last week, I consoled this same friend of mine, saying it’s just a line, when my friend’s line was down.
On one side of the coin, I’d say, karma’s a bitch.
On the other side though, is that when we look deeper, it has been easy for us to be sympathetic, to say we’re sorry for xx’s loss, or zz’s death. It is easy for us to say we understand, to say we feel the pain.
It is, however, really not quite as easy to understand. It is almost impossible to feel the pain.
There are places inside a person that words could never reach.

Possibly, the only way that we could truly understand what it feels, how much pain it brings, is through experience.
Unfortunately, it seems like that’s the only time we truly learn. We truly experience.
Only with the death of someone dear do we truly understand the tears that flow, the pain which no words could explain.

We sympathized when we see others going through a tough time, we sympathized when we see another in pain over the loss of someone dear.
We sympathized with those with disabilities. Physically, or mentally.
We even sympathized with those who faced a cruel twist of fate..acid victims, rape victims.

Possibly, we really have gotten it all wrong from the very beginning.
The last thing a person undergoing a tough patch in his/ her life want is possibly, the sympathy of another.
The last thing a person with disabilities want is for us to look at them, with our sorry eyes, feeling pitiful for them.
Perhaps, that act itself, is a form of discrimination.

Maybe, if only we know that very few people want sympathy.
If only we know that most people only want people who empathizes.
If only we really could understand.

Nonetheless, I’m not implying, in any way, or form that we should not have sympathy. In fact, I have much.
I truly feel sorry for them. Those whom are stuck in their lil world, refusing change, refusing to move forward, and to a certain extent, refusing to be human.
For human is supposed to be the more evolved species that has the ability to think, and make sound judgment..or so I thought..
And that’s, another topic for another time.