Empathy? Compassion?

I’ve been thinking a lot about these two words lately. They are to me what others call love… I think. I see/feel them in words, songs and in nature. Maybe they’re all the same maybe not. Doesn’t much matter I guess as I’m not going to argue the semantics. And I’m surely not that good at putting my deepest thoughts on paper… or a website. But I know my feelings and I’m doing my best at making them something I can reflect back on.

I’ve always said that Compassion is more important than the 3 R’s. But really, are they feelings that require teaching? Or are they feelings that we all have and at some point in life (possibly at a very young age) is/are overpowered by the selfish wants we all have? Greed? Power?

Maybe I’ve been wrong all this time. Maybe just reminding others not lose sight of things that are already known and beautiful. Maybe we should teach how not to forget the feeling of pain and suffering in others.

After all, shouldn’t being better, be life’s goal?

empathyblindness

Had an Eventful Ride

Well let’s see. Where do I start?

Saw 3 owls. Each swooped down within 50 feet of me as I was riding. One of them was so close I even saw his eyes. I haven’t seen 3 like that in my life much less all in one 85 mile ride.

I got spooked by a deer. I guess we’re even. It got pretty spooked by me. Thankfully, like the owls we never got “too” close.

Met 2 hobo’s. 1 human, 1 dog. Not to be confused with beggars or homeless. They weren’t begging, neither of them. And homeless? Not even close. Wherever they are is their home. The guy worked day jobs and when he had enough to move on, he did just that with the pooch by his side. Carefree and talk about being off the grid. I very much envy them both and those like them. Never asking for a thing, never expecting the same. I often wonder if I could do the same? I gave them 40 bucks and wished them well. He immediately went in to the RaceTrack and spent it all on beer. haha. Nope! He walked in and bought the dog a can of food. Didn’t get anything for himself.
That hobo has class. He has compassion.

Silver Dodge 300 in Homosassa. This fucking brainless nimrod pulls out in front of me while I was tooling down the highway at the speed limit plus 5. I had to pull a few tricks out of my hat to avoid being part of his driver side door panel. It was as close as I’ve been to a collision since my last collision in 1984. After the evasive maneuvers I realized my heart rate was too high not to mention I wanted to do nothing more than kill the oxygen wasting asshole. Backed it down a few mph and eventually convinced myself to not go after him and probably get my ass kicked after spending all my luck avoiding him in the first place. Probably a wise move on my part.

I hit a rat! In a 4 lane highway I run over a rat no bigger than my fist. What are the chances my 1 inch contact patch on the road of life would wind up running over some poor fucking rat just trying to make a life for himself? I felt bad about it. I’m confident it felt much worse. =/

Oh What a Feeling… Toyota

So there I am, sitting at a red light waiting for it to change to a prettier green when two guys in a white Toyota pickemup start saying come on old man. Let’s race.

Now it’s pretty clear that neither my XR or myself is a race duo and his Toyota surely isn’t a track truck but who cares when a challenge comes up right? haha

So light turns green and I turn the wick up to about 70 percent and let him lead long enough to think he’s winning. Passenger makes hand signals to the effect of “come on man, we’re dusting your ass”. That was about the time I proceeded to turn up the remaining 30 percent.

At 30 ish he had me by just shy of 2 car lengths… at 80 I had him by nearly 3… full tuck, one handed as my left hand was waving him to try and catch me.

It was a fun half mile it was. =)

honda xr650l

The winner!