[c]The word empathy is a very complicated concept, everyone seems to have a different definition for empathy. [i]In an essay called “Is Empathy overrated” Paul Bloom discusses why empathy is not something humans should strive for. He claims that [q]“empathy is a spotlight with a narrow focus; it shines brightly on those we love and gets dim for those who are different or strange” (bloom 2). [e]He believes that you can only have empathy for people you truly love, and we can’t possibly have empathy for people that are different from us. [t]On the other hand, David Foster Wallace in his commencement speech to Kenyon College or better known as “This is Water” claims that we should live our lives being empathy to others because of what they might be going through. He talks about how he could look at big SUV’s and their bumper stickers and get angry at the fact that they are burning through a ton gas, but instead [q]“it’s not impossible that some of these people in SUV’s have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive. Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he’s trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he’s in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way.” [c]Two people who talk about empathy have completely different definitions of the word and it is up to us on which way we want to incorporate the word empathy into our own lives.
