Empathy

For a while now, I’ve been spending a little time each evening watching movies with two of my boys. It’s something I’ve come to look forward to every day and for many different reasons. One of these reasons crystallized more clearly in my mind after a long phone conversation with my daughter.

Some see movies as merely entertainment, perhaps a way to unwind and escape for a little while from the weight of daily life. For me, whether it’s the most serious drama or the most light-hearted animated Disney movie, I see life and human experience woven throughout. I see what binds us together as a human race. I see the heights of joy and the depths of anguish. And I consume all of it and allow it to pass through me, because the joy I see fills me with gratitude and the anguish I see fills me with empathy and a desire to reach out to relieve people’s suffering.

Anyone who pays attention to what I post may have noticed that themes of spirituality and religion often surface in one form or another. I have a literal belief in things that many see as only fiction. I know, however, there are many out there who will meet me halfway and concede that, while they don’t believe these things happened, there is still value and inspiration in the stories.

Until relatively recently, I’ve struggled with this idea. I’ve thought, if it didn’t really happen, then how can I derive something of genuine, lasting worth from it? I’ve suffered from similar skepticism when watching movies “based on a true story.” I’ve been disappointed upon discovering how little of what was conveyed in the movie is reflected in actual events. It has always somehow cheapened the movie, made it of less value to me.

Bias

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/news/news/shameful-moment-history-sisters-react-insurrection-us-capitol

The more I’ve thought about it, the more convinced I am that human bias operates on the exact same principles as machine learning. It comes down to (1) what “features” (criteria) we base our “predictions” (judgments) on and (2) the number and variety of examples we expose our minds to.

Let’s say I want to “train” a model in my brain to recognize whether a person is “good” or “bad”. And, let’s say my brain already has some definition of “good” (someone who smiles and displays a certain amount of camaraderie with others) and “bad” (someone who makes angry faces, yells, and breaks things).

For item #2 above, let’s say I train my brain by exposing it to media images of a certain group of people who – oh, I don’t know – were in and around the capitol building of a major world power on a day when the the fate of the nation was being decided.

Based on my “good”/”bad” labels, many in this sample fall into the “bad” category and fewer in the “good” category. Standout physical features of this sample of individuals tend to be things like red MAGA hat, patriotic paraphernalia, and perhaps, to a lesser extent facial hair and hairy chests. These features (their presence or absence) will become strong predictors in my model distinguishing good people from bad people.

Now, it’s time to use the model in my brain to make “predictions” or come to conclusions or judgements about an independent sample of individuals – let’s say, a large population of people gathered earlier in the day in the same area as the group we used to train our model.

One Day

Taken from: https://livelifehappy.com/life-quotes/humanity-should-be-our-race-love-should/

[Originally written about 5 months ago in another forum] There’s a lot on my mind surrounding the state of things in the U.S and the song ‘One Day’, by Matisyahu, captures what I’m feeling…. But there’s another song I want to add to this that makes me feel the same way. It’s Wavin’ Flag by K’naan.

Matisyahu is “…an American Jewish reggae singer, rapper, beatboxer, and alternative rock musician…. Known for blending Orthodox Jewish themes with reggae, rock and hip hop beatboxing sounds….” K’naan is “…a Somali Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist…. [his] sound is influenced by elements of Somali music and world music….”

Two people emerging from ethnic, religious, and/or political traditions historically at odds with each other, but singing, essentially, One Song or One Story. That’s because this Story exists outside of, above, the barriers we set up to divide ourselves.

K’naan sang a remixed version of his song for the 2010 World Cup. Soccer (or should I say, football) is the one sport that I think belongs to the world. And hearing this song within that context makes me feel what I long for – One World and One Race.

There’s one word that stands out to me as the essence of the song, which I’ll put in square brackets, because I’ve seen a variant when looking for the lyrics. I like this version:

Give me freedom, give me fire
Give me reason, take me higher
See the champions take the field now
[Unify] us, make us feel proud

In the streets our heads are liftin’
As we lose our inhibition
Celebration, it surrounds us
Every nation, all around us

During a layover on an international flight a while back, I remember walking through the Amsterdam airport and being shocked by the diversity of people – every race, it seemed, but my own. And they felt like my people.

The One Race I care about is Humanity. And the One Religion I want is Love. And there are people of every sort, independent of religion, nationality, political affiliation, or ethnicity, singing the same Song. Whatever happens in the world, no matter how bad things get, there will always be those who continue to sing this Song.

Two Stories

Check out this incredible picture. What do you see in her eyes? With pictures of people, I sometimes cover up one eye at a time and look at each one individually. Often, they tell different stories. In this case, I see struggle, loss, and pain in one of her eyes. In the other, I see strength, determination, ruggedness, imperturbability, and resilience. In short, I see power in the face of extreme hardship. I’ll let you guess which eye tells which story. Together, they tell me an inspiring story of human will. For more pictures like this, see https://www.wowamazing.com/talent/photography/photos-show-that-eyes.