Compassion
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- December 9th, 2008 |
- Comments
I never considered myself a particularly sacred, or for that matter, a religious person. But I’ve found that in writing The Osgoode Trilogy, particularly the 3rd, A Attempt of One, that compassion has become real alcoholic theme which runs finished all III novels.
I just found this quote from Thomas Aquinas &ndash “I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it.” Certainly, this must be the difference between the apprehension of the head and the heart.
In the first novel in the trilogy, Conduct in Question, we have a man dubbed by the media as the “The Florist” who is a asynchronous killer &ndash so named because he tries to capture the easy flow of the line of the master painter, Matisse, in his carvings on his victims. He is a sadistic killer with an artistic bent.
You may feel [as I do] that the class has plenty of novels with asynchronous killers and so, rather than detailing his rampages, I craved to add any provocatively human touches to the character of the “Florist.” More than anything else, he wants to experience the emotion of compassion.
When he speaks to his mother, who is long since dead, he says in frustration &ndash “I know what the morpheme compassion mean, mother, but what does it feel like?”
As the account nears its conclusion, the “Florist” gets his care &ndasha fleeting meaning of compassion. About to murder his next dupe, John, who is a truly simple feeling &ndash the church caretaker &ndash the “Florist” is overcome with a compassionate meaning and decides to component him.
When the Florist mutely stepped into the room, a antic perception passed over him. Was this what Mother rung of? As if disoriented, he obstructed and shook his head. Was this compassion?
“It’s you!” said John, his grin radiating a sweetness the Florist had never seen before. He saw the muscles of the huge man flex; John’s damp achromatic shirt was matted to his cutis. He saw the dilution but baby-fine hair, neatly combed in place. Short he saw the simple man as more than an obstacle in his path. He cerebration that life could not have been easy for much an imbecile. He should be spared. Mother would be proud of his act of compassion.
In Final Paradox, our hero, Harry Jenkins learns that compassion means stepping into another’s situation and apprehension what it feels like. Easy to have &ndash hard to do! When Harry was eight, his father withdrew from almost all contact with his family after the death of Anna, his daughter &ndashHarry’s sister. Now, years later, piece his father is in operation for a brain aneurysm, Harry waits in the Quiet Room trying to believe how his father could have abandoned him as a child.
At the real moment of his asking, Harry gets his answer as he witnesses the following played out before him.
Harry caught his breath. An unworldly crying came from the hallway. The door to the Quiet Room flew open. A tall, bony Black, act a mauve dress and old shawl, clung desperately to the arms of cardinal men. One was old and hunched and the other muscular and attentive.
The florescent lighting illuminated the Black’s face raw with agony.
“No! No!” As if possessed, she shook violently and her expression slid up octaves. “By the blood of Christ, no!” Clasping her hands to her ears, she began to moan, her eyes ricocheting about the room.
She screamed at the ceiling. “Why have you cursed me? He cannot be appropriated so presently.”
Harry pressed his hands against his face. With all his heart, he craved to pray. He had just witnessed the profane painful of the character at the loss of a child, caused by blind hatred. As he brushed the crying on his face, he began to believe. “God forgive me,” he whispered. “I have known nothing! My father died along with Anna. I did nothing to help.”
And that’s exactly where Harry begins to believe his father and compassion &ndash by actually experiencing his pain and loss. Accurate, you may contemplate compassion and quote clever sayings about it, but if you never feel another’s pain and excruciation in your heart and your gut, as if it were your real own, you do not know what it is.
Do you believe any people are naturally more compassionate?
In A Attempt of One, Harry’s beloved, Natasha has her own struggles with compassion. She is forced to choose between cardinal people she loves &ndash Harry and her friend Sheila. Natasha recollects a conversation, years back, between her mother, Renee, and her Aunt Mila. The boss has demanded that Renee bang him so she can advance in the business.
“Oh, Renee! You poor kid!”
After a long quiet, her mother said softly, “Once we’d done it, his eyes looked so sad and ashamed, like being him just wore him down.”
Mila was aghast. “You felt compassionate for him?”
“No, not really. But I can accompany how loneliness can make you crazy.” Afterwards, we talked a bit, motion on the bed in the motel. He was living all alone thither because his woman had run off with the kids.”
Natasha’s compassionate nature makes choosing between Harry and Sheila so difficult for her. Hurt and angry, Sheila has betrayed Natasha who now considers her next block as she wanders the beach.
Natasha turned and walked easy past the riot of weeds and capable the cottage. Presently she would drive back to the city. She knew Harry was her passion, the one who had awakened her to herself. But she allay heard Sheila’s cry &ndash one of all humanity &ndash because it hurts! Sheila’s pain, from fear of loss, was a pain common by the entire class. She did not reach it by reason, but she knew thither was only one abstraction she could do &ndash act with love, care, and compassion.
Talking about love and compassion… having to decide between cardinal people who love her, [Harry and Sheila] Natasha must find that balance between passion and compassion. Easy to have: hard to do!