Empathy begins the process of connecting us with others, as we share their emotions. Our own life experience enables us to understand something of the life experience of others. That emotional understanding is the distinction we call empathy: “. . . the capacity to share the feelings of others . . .” “Empathy is a complex capability enabling individuals to…
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Value for Wednesday of Week 37 in the season of Fulfillment
Accepting Others
To know another person’s Truth, we must accept him for who he is.
- It was said that the true majesty of Marcus Aurelius was that his exactingness was directed only at himself. He did not ‘go around expecting Plato’s republic.’ People were people, he understood they were not perfect. He found a way to work with flawed people, putting them to service for the good of the empire, searching them for virtues that he celebrated and accepting their vices, which he knew were not in his control. [Ryan Holiday]
- One of the most satisfying feelings I know — and also one of the most growth-promoting experiences for the other person — comes from my appreciating this individual in the same way that I appreciate a sunset. People are just as wonderful as sunsets if I can let them be. [Carl Rogers]
- By accepting people, by understanding and if possible even loving them for their human nature, we can liberate our minds from obsessive and petty emotions. We can stop reacting to everything people do and say. We can have some distance and stop ourselves from taking everything personally. Mental space is freed up for higher pursuits. [Robert Greene]
It is not for us to change someone else or to project our experiences, values and the like onto him. Acceptance demands that we respect others, and the kind of acceptance that brings the Truth force to life demands that we honor and appreciate others, not merely acknowledge and tolerate them. “. . . people who feel inadequately valued and accepted may behave in ways to increase acceptance, aggress against those who rejected them, distance themselves from other people, and/or engage in symbolic efforts to increase their subjective sense of being accepted. Concerns with acceptance and belonging exert a pervasive, ongoing effect on human thought, behavior, and emotion.” As nearly as possible, we must imagine ourselves as the other person, knowing that we can only do so incompletely and in the main, inadequately.
Real
True Narratives
- Rachel Louise Martin, A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation (Simon & Schuster, 2023), is “unsparing account of an early effort at school desegregation in the Jim Crow South.”
- Matthew Stewart, An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical Philosophy, the War Over Slavery, and the Refounding of America (W.W. Norton & Company, 2024): “The driving force in American politics in the decades after the American Revolution was the rise of an arrogant, ruthless, parasitic oligarchy in the South, built on a foundation of Christian religion and a vision of permanent, God-ordained economic inequality.”
From the dark side:
- Ana Raquel Minian, In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States (Viking, 2024): “Unlike American citizens, who are protected by constitutional rights (and have legal recourse if those rights are violated), immigrants are exceptionally vulnerable to government power. Even the right to due process is inconsistently applied to them, and sometimes denied altogether.”
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels:
- Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel (Doubleday, 2003): “Haddon manages to bring us deep inside Christopher's mind and situates us comfortably within his limited, severely logical point of view, to the extent that we begin to question the common sense and the erratic emotionalism of the normal citizens who surround him, as well as our own intuitions and habits of perception.”
- R.J. Palacio, Wonder: A Novel (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2012): “Born with several genetic abnormalities, 10-year-old August Pullman, called Auggie, dreams of being ‘ordinary.’ Inside, he knows he’s like every other kid, but even after 27 surgeries, the central character . . . bears facial disfigurations so pronounced that people who see him for the first time do ‘that look-away thing’ — if they manage to hide their shock and horror.”
- Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give (Balzer + Bray, 2017): “As a teenager, Starr is a sneakerhead who uncomfortably straddles opposing worlds — Garden Heights, a predominantly black and lower-income neighborhood, is the place she’s always called home; Williamson Prep, a fancy predominantly white private school, is where she and her siblings, Seven (Lamar Johnson) and Sekani (TJ Wright), attend school. She works hard every day to keep them separate, hiding her white boyfriend, Chris (K.J. Apa), from her father, while policing her own appearance and actions at school.”
- Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower: A Novel (MTV Books, 2019): “. . . the story turns on Charlie (Logan Lerman), a melancholic teenager who has endured his share of sorrows and, when the story cranks up in 1991, is praying to make it through the new school year. His prayers are answered when he’s rescued by the friendships he makes with Patrick (a charismatic Ezra Miller) and Patrick’s stepsister, Sam (Emma Watson).”
- Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove: A Novel (Atria Books, 2014): “The novel’s protagonist, Ove, is a lonely curmudgeon who screams at his neighbors for parking in the wrong place and punches a hospital clown whose magic tricks annoy him.”
Poetry
From the dark side:
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Harmon Whitney”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartets, Op. 20, “Sun” quartets (1772) (approx. 118-147’) (list of recorded performances), express the composer’s reaction to a strain of strict rationalism in the Enlightenment of his time. He seems to have meant these quartets to express an opening to a freer emotional life, as expressed by a shining sun. These quartets “make the fullest use of four completely independent voices (in his earlier quartets Haydn would often fuse the viola and cello parts together to be one line), employ a much expanded range of texture and dynamics, and show for the first time the composer’s flexibility in phrase length and structure, with all its attendant capacity for wit and surprise. The set’s nickname, the ‘Sun Quartets’, is due merely to the sun that was displayed on the cover of the first edition; the name even seems somewhat misleading, since two of the quartets are in darker, minor keys (it was more the custom to have only one minor-key work in a set at this time), and since the many bright moments in these works are well balanced by passages that are more learned, convoluted, and experimental.” Musicologist David Tovey has observed: “Every page of the six quartets of Op. 20 is of historic and aesthetic importance; and though the total results still leave Haydn with a long road to travel, there is perhaps no single or sextuple opus in the history of instrumental music which has achieved so much or achieved it so quietly . . . With Op. 20 the historical development of Haydn's quartets reaches its goal; and further progress is not progress in any historical sense, but simply the difference between one masterpiece and the next.” Excellent recorded performances of the entire opus are by Hagen Quartett in 1993; Quatuor Mosaïques in 2000; Pellegrini Quartet in 2007; Kocian Quartet (1-3; 4-6) (2016); and Dudok Quartet (1, 4, 6) (2, 3, 5) (2020).
- Quartet No. 28 in E-flat major, Op. 20, No. 1, FHE No. 43, Hob. III:31 (approx. 25-26’)
- Quartet No. 25 in C major, Op. 20, No. 2, FHE No. 44, Hob. III:32 (approx. 25’): “Throughout this quartet, the cello is finally emancipated from its humble role as a keeper of the base line to become a fully independent voice in a four-part texture.”
- Quartet No. 26 in G minor, Op. 20, No. 3, FHE No. 45, Hob. III:33 (approx. 27’): “. . . Haydn couples the key of G minor with a spirited, feisty attitude, sometimes even turbulent and stormy; there is never that sense of fatefulness, of deep sorrow, that (Mozart) was to bring.”
- Quartet No. 27 in D major, Op. 20, No. 4, FHE No. 46, Hob. III:34 (approx. 25-26’), “opens softly with five enigmatic six-bar phrases, followed by a violent outburst. (And the three repeated notes that start the phrases become a sonic signature for this quartet.) It then goes boldly where no quartet had gone in terms of dramatic adventure, including the kind of silent pause and false recapitulation for which Haydn would become famous.”
- Quartet No. 23 in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5, FHE No. 47, Hob.III:35 (approx. 22-25’)
- Quartet No. 24 in A major, Op. 20, No. 6, FHE No. 48, Hob. III:36 (approx. 17’)
Other works:
- Olivier Messiaen, Cantéyodjayâ (1948) (approx. 11-14’) (list of recorded performances) draws on Hindu rhythms.
Wes Montgomery played easy-going, straight-ahead jazz guitar. His work creates a sense of core inner goodness, and because it is in ensemble, an acceptance of others. Here are links to his releases; a documentary film; a Workship in Hamburg on April 28, 1965; and a live performance in 1965.
Accordionist Maciej Zimka has composed several works in which his instrument is paired in a way that many people might consider unusual. If an accordion can pair with a violin, a guitar or a clarinet, we should be able to accept each other, regardless of our differences.
Chiyomi Yamada is a Japanese soprano who has combined Japanese musical elements with those from Europe and the Americas. Here is a link to her releases.
- Sonata for Violin and Accordion (2009) (approx. 14’)
- Sonata for Accordion and Guitar (2018) (approx. 15’)
- Out of the Circle for clarinet and accordion (2018) (approx. 11’)
Albums:
- Rabih Abou-Khalil, “Blue Camel” (1991) (61’), “demonstrates . . . that a fusion between jazz and a musical form from another culture is possible and can work to the advantage of both.”
- Daniel Binelli & Pedro H. da Silva, “Tango Fado Duo” (2018) (53’)
- Paul Green, “A Bissel Rhythm” (2019) (46’), incorporating characteristic Jewish Klezmer sounds and jazz elements
- Lamine Cissokho & Manish Pingle, “New Continents: West African Kora Meets Indian Slide Guitar” (2019) (31’)
- Re/Semblance, “Saath-Saath: An India-China Musical Collaboration” (2021) (108’) – the title means “together-together”
- Gao Hong & Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde, “Alondra” (2024) (41’): “Inspired by the Skylark’s intricate melodies, this unique musical journey intertwines Pipa and Flamenco, transcending cultural boundaries.”
- Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, with Chao Tian, “From China to Appalachia” (2024) (48’): “Two opposite ingredients that gel to make something…delicious.”
- Nicole Johänntgen, “Labyrinth” (2023) (40’) and “Labyrinth II” (2025) (49’): if this sax and this tuba can get along . . .
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Barbra Streisand, “People” (lyrics)
- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “Same Love” (lyrics)
- Angel Haze, “Same Love”
- Michael Jackson, “Black or White” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
These are Visual Arts typed in by Terri.
Here's some bold text.
Here's a list:
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- Item 2
