The world has never valued kindness.
Kindness in this world has always been perceived as a sign of weakness.
To be kind is stupid.
Ignorant.
You care for your own first.
Blood is thicker than the welfare of the stranger.
If you don't know, I'm an empath.
I was diagnosed late in life after years of suffering at the hands and words of everyone around me.
Their anger, their hate, their ignorance, their prejudice, their racism, their bias wore me down to the breaking point.
It broke me.
What kept me from taking my life?
Love.
Compassion.
Caring.
A simple act that cost the person who saved my life absolutely nothing.
But what it did was allow me to be here today talking to you about it.
There is redemption.
There is hope.
There is reconciliation with those who deserve it.
I'm not here to say that those who commit egregious acts upon you are to be forgiven and forgotten.
No.
Never.
I'm here to say that you need to forgive yourself first and foremost so that you can heal.
You're not responsible for their evil.
That's why you forgive yourself first.
Not the criminal mind that acted against you.
Hurt you.
Never forget.
Never forget the cruelty.
The heartless acts of violence and selfishness meant to hurt, to punish, to destroy you.
Compassion is about a standard of morality.
Compassion does not need a religion.
Compassion does not need a doctrine.
Compassion is the act that love tells us to do.
Compassion is stronger than hate.
Stronger than anger.
Stronger than fear.
It can heal the deepest wound.
It can bridge the distance between minds.
It can accomplish the impossible, even in the hands of the smallest, most overlooked person.
Compassion.
Compassion resonates through the centuries.
The love that men and women once shared is why we are here today.
They fought the good fight.
They stood up to the intolerant.
They ignored the impossible and made it possible.
Compassion is defined as weakness by evil.
You will learn that those who fear a thing call it out as weakness.
Evil fears compassion.
Just as the child who is afraid of the dark calls out, telling the darkness they are not scared of it…
BOO!
They are.
I have learned that my empathy is a two-edged knife.
It cuts to the truth, but it also cuts me.
It's hard every day to feel the pain all around me.
It can bring me down.
Yet, it can spur me on, too.
To find a way to lift every voice.
The importance of just one life.
To push for that day when hate is seen for what it is.
Weak.
Peace
Daniel J Frey aka Toby
