Hello. this my essay on compassion. please give me some advices. especial conclusion. it is the hardest part for me. thank you very much
If someone is sixty years old and has no friends, no lover, no children, and no one to share his home with, that person is probably not very happy.
Mr. Wu was my neighbor when I lived in China. I had known him since I was a child, and I still don't know what his real name is. Everyone called him "Mr. Wu." He didn't like to speak, and even if someone asked him a question, he just gave a short answer or shook his head. However he always smiled. I never saw him chat with anyone. When there was a holiday, and people got together with family and friends, he didn't, Not once that I saw. In fact, my grandfather invited him to join our family's celebration a few times, but he always refused. Usually I saw him sitting in front of his house, against the wall and looking at the sky.
I was very interested in him and thought maybe that he had a mental problem so and I asked my grandfather. My grandfather told me I was wrong. Mr.Wu used to be a very lively person, he said. Since his family died in an accident he doesn't like to talk. I was a little bit shocked by this news. I tried to imagine what he would look like if his family didn't die. I wanted to do something to make him happy and to join us, but I didn't what to do. Finally, I just smiled at him every time I saw him.
The definition of sympathy is when we feel sorry for someone, but don't do much of anything to support that person. Compassion is the humane quality of being moved by the suffering of others and doing something about it. Compassion helps to ease the pain of another person. Compassion is about actions and not words.
For example, in the essay "Christmas at Home," P.J. Alexander describes her family's tradition of helping other people during the holidays. Alexander's parents took them to church and they collected for UNICEF at Halloween. Alexander and her brother and sister didn't like to spend the holiday doing these things, and she didn't understand why her parents made them to do it. She started to understand her parents when she realized there are many homeless children. Now she works at the homeless shelter, serving people every holiday. She thinks that because she has so much; she should do something for others. Compassion is her family tradition and she plans to continue.
Barbara Lazear Ascher also has questions about compassion. In her essay "On Compassion" She describes two she observed in Manhattan. She saw a man who had "his buttonless shirt with one sleeve missing, hanging outside the waist of his baggy trousers," standing at a street corner. A woman gives him a dollar and he takes it. Ascher wants to know if it is fear or compassion that motivates the woman. She also observes that some people at the bus stop don't pay attention to the man. Later, in a French bread shop she sees the owner give a homeless man a cup of coffee and a bag of "yesterday's bread or today's croissant." She ponders why the owner gives food to him. Is it pity, care, or compassion? She also mentions in that essay that New York's mayor's decision to move all homeless people into a hospital. She doesn't think it is a good idea to put homeless people into a hospital and hide them. She feels that if we don't see the homeless people or needy people, we can't have compassion for them, and then cannot help them.
Ascher said "that compassion is learned by having adversity at our windows, coming through the gate of our yards so that we being to identify and empathize with it." To feel compassion for someone we have to see them and then we are moved by their situation.
For example, my aunt adopted an orphan whose family died in the earthquake in China. I was very curious when I heard the news. I asked my aunt why she did it. Why not just donate some money instead of adopting a child? She has two own children, who has to spend a lot of time with. She told me she watched a lot of earthquake news and saw many images. She knew there were a lot people who died and left their children. She is a mother, and she felt sorry for these orphans. She knows how hard it is for them to have their family die and be alone in the world. So she wanted to do something to help. If my aunt hadn't watched the earthquake news, she wouldn't have felt compassion for the orphans. But she saw the images and felt compassion, and then she took action to help. She decided to adopt an orphan and raise the child as her own
Compassion is based on action. For example, poem "Policeman" by Spencer Frazee describes a policeman who found a two year old "busted up" lying on road. She fell out of a car window from her mother's lap in an accident. There were twenty people around, but they did nothing. The office went against policy and picked her up. He didn't want her to be alone. Finally, she died in his arms. The policeman's action to pick her up is compassion.
My aunt's action of adopted an orphan. Policeman's action of picked up two years old girl and P.J Alexander serving people in homeless shelter. They all see something that touched them and they wanted to do something. They are compassion. I didn't feel I could offer Mr.Wu anything more than a smile, but even a smile better nothing. It is a compassionate gesture as small as it is. If everyone in the world to be more compassionate then the world would be a better place.
