Sunday, January 22, 2017

Sunday Salon ~ compassion and carnage

Yesterday, I wrote about Carnage ~ word of the day; today I'll meet with Joy and Evelyn and Alyssa and Donna to discuss compassion.  As you can see in the screen-shot, Joy posted Am I More Compassionate? on her blog this morning.  We'll talk about what she said, including this:
"Compassion for myself pulls me away from fretting about things that are out of my control. Compassion for others pulls me toward actions that might make a difference while working with like-minded people."
I've been reading Willis Johnson's Holding Up Your Corner: Talking about Race in Your Community (2017).  It overlaps with our study of compassion, so today I'll suggest that we in my study group take a look at what Johnson is encouraging us to do.  The actions he suggests will make a difference, like Joy's actions while working with like-minded people.  First, we need to listen.
"People who are hurting need to be affirmed in their hurt; people who are angry need to be affirmed in their anger" (pp. 54, 60).
Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

3 comments:

Helen's Book Blog said...

Compassion seems like good word choices given the events of the past few days. Yesterday, with the marches world-wide, felt filled with compassion. From women, men, children, people of all races and sexual persuasions, and people of all ages and faiths.

Dani In NC said...

It sounds like you and your friends are gearing up to move beyond talk to perform actions in your community.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Absolutely! But my friends and I have already been performing actions in our communities. We have discussed compassion for a year, but we are all active in more than one group. This will be an extension of what we've done before.