All that paranoia, circulating through the troposphere, a taste of ashes on the wind; each of us a little skittish, teeth set on edge. Compassion seemed in short supply, while the politicians publicly mouthing the word only debased its currency. It felt urgent, in a world turned colder, to find a life more centered in the heart.
But how? What is compassion, that x-factor that every faith (the founders, if not the followers) exalts as a supreme virtue? When the Dalai Lama says, "My only religion is kindness" and the Pope calls for a "civilization of love," it can't just be mealy-mouthed piety. Kindness and love are powers unto themselves, able to transmute even the most relentless enmity. Nelson Mandela once remarked he befriended his jailers, those grim, khaki-clad overseers of his decades of hard labor in a limestone quarry, by "exploiting their good qualities." Asked if he believed all people were kind at their core, he responded, "There is no doubt whatsoever, provided you are able to arouse their inherent goodness." If that sounds like wishful thinking, well, he actually did it.
— Marc Ian Barasch, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life