What at first stood out to me when I read this chapter was the section that talked about "Empathy" and how it is necessary when maintaining good citizenship. I find that interesting because I was lucky enough to be chosen to attend the Leadership Collaborative 2009 and I found out that one of my strengths was empathy. Empathy is not Sympathy. Empathy grants a person the ability feel what the other person feels. To know what it's like when someone is going through a hardtime because of a divorce. In many ways it's relating to what other people are going to on a personal level.
Now when thinking about Citizenship I kinda found it really hard to Empathize with people who are homeless, starving, and all the other problems that plague a lot of the world. Now I've done high school challenges where you attempt to not eat for an entire week and what not (most the time I failed because I love to eat) but the end result will be the same. Most likely you'll gorge yourself on your favorite foods once your probationary time has ended. This was an interesting thought for me. How do we truly empathize with those in horrible conditions. Is it even possible? I would love to know what everyone thinks about this!
Moving beyond just the part about empathy, I felt like a lot of what we've read so far factored into Citizenship. Without congruence or sincerity then there is no meaning behind these acts and you are just going through the motions. Good citizenship is about bettering your Community. Focusing on not only short term but long term development. I'm sure this is what the book is aiming for but it is fun to see how everything ties together in a nice pretty bow (yes I said it and I like Twilight too and i'm PROUD of it).
Looking forward to the class discussion tomorrow!!
Hmmm the topic of having empathy with others who have extremely different life situations is interesting. I'm not sure how to put this into words right now!
ReplyDeleteBring this up tomorrow. I feel like it will create a good discussion!
You bring up a great point that it is almost impossible for people who have a decent upbringing to empathize with people in a lesser situation. When its hard to empathize it is also difficult to act in a congruent or sincere way. You can see why the book stressed empathy and I'm happy you brought up the challenge people face when trying to be a model citizen
ReplyDeleteJon, great question about empathy. We should chat more about that like Niko says.
ReplyDeleteAlso, great connection with the other C's!
Great connection to the book. (Twilight still blows). I totally agree that a good citizen is about bettering community. We all live here lets make it a bigger and better place
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