Blood Diamond

I recently watched Blood Diamond, the highly acclaimed film that won a few Academy Awards in 2006. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio, and that other guy. After watching it, I can honestly say it is one of the few movies that has actually changed the way I perceive the world around me. There were moments in the film where I couldn't possibly believe what I was seeing and yet it was presented in such a way that was gritty and realistic, yet also strangely poetic and heartwarming at the end. All in all, its enlightened me in so far as how I think people value the world around them. So many characters in this movie seem to have no qualms in putting the value of a rock above the value of a human life. This desensitization is one of the most chilling aspects of our modern world, in my opinion.

Thoughts on the Windy City

I recently returned from a short trip to Chicago Illinois. This was an exciting trip for me for a wide variety of reasons. Most notably, I was looking at a couple of colleges that seem to offer the types of programs I'm looking for after high school. Another important aspect of the trip was that I was finally visiting the mythic city so lauded in commercials by the crime fighting canine Scruff McGruff. Am I the only kid who remembers those commericals?

Send it to Scruff McGruff, Chicago Illinois 60652

Heck, I knew Chicago's zip code before I knew my own. Besides the obvious thrill of visiting a city I've dreamt about since childhood (a city gilded in gold filigree and watched over by the wise and friendly Scruff McGruff), my trip to Chicago was remarkable, for the most part, because of the temperature. As some of you may or may not know, this year has been extremely unusual in terms of temperature and precipitation. And by that I mean, it's so cold, I begin to envy orphaned children in South America simply because of their warm climate. It was very windy while we were in Chicago, but not nearly has bad as the Nor'easter that was playing havoc with my native New England.

Thoughts on Empathy

There is truly no notion as abstract as empathy. The ability to feel, sympathize, and connect with someone in a completely non-volatile manner is one decidedly unique to the human race. We are able to feel what other people are feeling and-this is the truly remarkable thing- we often change the way we behave based on such vague connections. An indifferent approach to the subject would render an appraisal of the human empathic system as one that is archaic and incredibly inefficient. However, we do not have the luxury of being indifferent, no; we do not even have the capability. Life would be simpler without such hindrances, we would be able to lead our lives without the fear of rejection; rejection of our actions, principals, and even ideals. This is a rejection founded in the popular thinking of a culture bred to destroy any countenance that spawns difference; any aspect that drives the nail farther out of the wood. But you know what they say about the nail that sticks out.

So, is it really empathy that defines us as human beings? The great equalizer, a balancing system that ensures we are all marked by the exact same handicap? I believe that it is not our weakness but our greatest strength. I believe that empathy is what makes us who we are as individuals. It is truly through the mystery of empathy that I have derived such a fascination for it. Being one of a cynical nature, I have always treated the subject of empathy with respectable trepidation. To describe such hesitancy as doubt would be foolish, rather as a seed of questionable certainty. I do not believe in treating any subject with blind obedience, to close one’s eye in the face of counter evidence is among the most appalling of sins. I do not believe that one can and should choose to believe in something simply based on a set of principles. However, I did and do not doubt the notion of empathy. I do believe that empathy is an alluring subject, because it is through empathy that we have become the most dominant species on the planet. And what, pray tell, is more attractive than an ideal that guarantees, simply through its nature, the excellence of its exhibitors? For this reason I did not treat the subject of empathy with doubt. However, to question its certainty is a matter of course. How can one truly believe in the excellence and abundance of empathy when such horrors against human occur every single day? Just how empathetic is the cold blooded killer, or the suicide bomber? And how can I, as a child of tremendous good fortune, blessed with every possible trace of luck imaginable, truly examine empathy from an unbiased stand.

Empathy biases us all, I believe.