So, how do you get better at something? Just piling up the hours isn’t enough. There are requirements of intention and technique. Do you do this?

A week ago, men and women went to work at airports around the United States as they always do. They showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, perhaps dropped off their kids at school.

The autocrat needs willing people to do his bidding. Remember Milgram. The discourse around what this administration is doing (and 45) suffers in my opinion from a lot of “black or white” judgement. He’s a bad person. Evil. We’re good people. Good people don’t do bad things.

Breaking news: they do. 

These “black or white” judgements come with a worrying lack of empathy or compassion. Turning the “other” into somebody it is impossible to relate to – a non-human, in other words – is one of the things that creates these huge rifts we see in our ever-more-polarized social landscape.

There has been some interesting discussion around compassion over on Euan’s Facebook wall. Regarding 45, I’ve found this discussion of his possible subliteracy both enlightening (could explain a lot of the bizarreness we’re seeing) and saddening, for the human he is. (Saddening for the USA, the world, the people who are impacted directly by what’s going on: goes without saying.)

“There is nothing you can say to heal someone else’s grief.”

But that doesn’t mean you cannot be there. Just being present can make a world of difference. It’s not about the words you say, it’s about presence.

Regarding grief, a topic that is on my mind because of recent loss and because I’m finishing a 30-day writing course on the topic, also read “The Fierce Tribe of After: Grief, with Attitude” – written by a man who took the same course.