Empathy

Words tend to take on more shades of meaning when they are misunderstood or used in ways that differ from earlier and/or accepted meanings. One of those words is empathy. Even a first year counseling student has learned that empathy has to do with understanding another person, their perspective, feelings, point of view, or, as the dictionary describes it, "the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another"... sort of like the reported Native American saying about needing to "walk a mile in another's moccasins" in order to fully understand someone. Empathy is NOT sympathy, which is a "harmony of feelings" or identifying with someones feelings because you have similar feelings. Empathy is an intellectual phenomenon; sympathy is an emotional one.

All of this made me smile at some of the reactions to President Obama's description of the kind of person he would look for as a Supreme Court nominee. He said he would look for someone who was empathetic... someone who could understand people, a quality I think we'd want in any judge... the ability to not only look at the law, but also the ability to identify at some level with those he or she is judging, so as to better use judicial discretion to make good judgements.

However, what at least some heard was that he was wanting someone who would judge according to their feelings about various issues... a totally different thing altogether, and certainly not what he actually said. My guess is the air waves will be filled with pundits from the networks and representatives of both parties expressing their opinions.

A lot of hype over a comment that, at least to my thinking, simply meant he wants someone who wants to "walk a mile" with people before making judgements. Language is indeed an adventure!!