Ink of COMPASSION

12 min readOct 12, 2020

Deep within my restless heart lay a pregnant whirl of passion — a thirsting for a delivery of the fragrances of compassion. Compassion is like a sponge, whose filaments are weaved with love and empathy; which cushions the impact of life’s many blows, by virtue of its absorbent nature. Though personal, it is not meant to be kept for oneself; rather it is meant to be shown/demonstrated in an endless continuum of giving and receiving between people and by obligation, the entire aspects of nature.

In spite of its glorious beauty, ours is a broken world beset with numerous challenges — poverty, conflict, hunger, terrorism, corruption, human trafficking, climate change, sickness and diseases, hate, injustice, and illiteracy, to name a few. And only in the true spirit of compassion can we really unite to mitigate many of these seemingly interminable circumstances that befall us. Compassion in the words of Henri Nouwen:

Asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places

of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and

anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry with those in

misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep

with those in tears. It requires us to be weak with the

weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable and powerless with

the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the

condition of being human.

Compassion realizes that it takes each of us to make a difference for all of us. Everyone needs compassion irrespective of their race, creed, gender, status, class, and/or religion.

Compassion for Humanity

Perhaps selfishly, you have been living life with your eyes closed to the condition of others; it’s time you opened up. Look around. Just across the street, lots of children are starving to death. A single meal for many homes is most times a luxury they can barely afford. Others have to beg before they can eat. Some people (mostly children) even resort to scouring the refuse dump for possible edibles (I espied this harrowing sight in Haiti). Oh, I guess some of you caught a glimpse of such sight sometimes, without a care in the world? All you thought was: “it is their parents’ fault, the government is to blame,” etc. without ever thinking of what you can do improve their plight. Or maybe all you’ve known in your life is opulence and have never come across let alone imagine such happening to anyone. Then, permit me to give you a compassionate assignment: Pay a compassionate visit to an orphanage or a disability centre, show them love and compassion. Give!

Alternatively, you can visit a hospital; see the scores of ailing people; many whose diagnoses have rendered their hopes and outlook of the future as bleak as non-existent. You might need to stop by at a dialysis or oncology centre to know what I mean. Somewhere in the Middle East, many are on death row just for adhering to a particular creed or religion. Every now and then, a number of people amidst great terror are seen imploring their fellow human: “Please don’t kill me”. Another is pleading to be killed with a gun rather than a machete. Imagine such cruel disregard for human life? Countless others are imprisoned just for exercising their fundamental human rights and speaking up against injustice. Many have lost their lives for very flimsy reasons, while a number of people have either been sentenced to death or completely forgotten in gaols for supposedly committing a crime described as blasphemy.

Meanwhile, millions of homeless and internally displaced persons in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, DRC, Nigeria, Haiti, Sudan, etc., have miniscule or no hope of ever regaining their lives and homes. Others have treaded through extremely terrible conditions while fleeing their home countries or settlements in order to seek refuge or asylum in foreign lands. According to current global metrics, over 70 million people are displaced around the world, with over 50 million as refugees. For many of them, the difference between life and death is still heavily dependent on a meal. The outbreak of the Covid_19 pandemic globally has brought untold hardship upon many, lives have been lost and for some persons whose lives were already ebbing away; it came as the final straw. A recent report explains how the Covid_19-induced harsh economic realities is forcing many refugees in Africa (mostly women) to resort to transactional sex in order to survive; all in exchange of food and shelter…Now pause and reflect on all these. Depending on whom/what you are; chances are high that what you will feel for those undergoing these terrible plights is pity, rather than compassion which if genuine, is still commendable. But “Aren’t pity and compassion synonymous”, a friend asked? Well, for me, they are not.

Pity and Compassion

Pity in its true sense is a feeling of sympathy caused by the suffering and misfortune of others. This merely stipulates that pity is largely contingent on observation or awareness of a person’s predicament for it to be elicited. Misfortune is its catalyst. Compassion on other hand is a deeper sympathetic feeling devoid of ego, toward another person’s condition and a willingness to improve or ameliorate it. Pity is egoistic, condescending, and it involves a situation where the object of the emotion is looked down on or worse, completely ridiculed. This explains why people prefer to be in an enviable position, rather than a pitiable one. Because compassion is born out of love, it does not need the awareness of an ugly situation for it to be demonstrated or shown. It evinces a constant, deep realization regarding the condition of being human. It seeks to treat everyone right while genuinely respecting the rights of others. Anyone can be comfortable with compassion, but people for the most part, do not like to be pitied unless when they’ve got little or no choice. To substantiate this, Pema Chodron once said, “Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others”… At times, the difference between the two emotions is a pretty nuanced one and requires a higher level of sensitivity to delineate.

You, Me & Compassion

It was George Washington carver who said, “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong; because, someday in your life you will have been all of these.” How profound! It just reinforces the recognition of the human condition and its attendant vulnerabilities. As a leader or manager in an organisation, you can be more compassionate toward your employees without necessarily becoming laissez-faire in leadership. It begins with respecting the rights of each employee and appreciating the work they do in the organisation. It involves a consciousness that there is more to their lives than just the work they are paid to do and that, far above being an employee- is a human. Majority of all ‘cheap labours’ only serve to accrue cheap benefits to the business owners but are nowhere near cheap from the perspective of workers because of very unfair working conditions. They more often than not constitute a vicious violation of the fundamental rights of (most especially unskilled/minimally skilled) employees with the situation aided in most cases by the employees little or complete lack of fairer alternatives which necessitate their dependence on the job for their livelihood. And the employer does not care so long the profit margin is increasing. How inhuman!

If the pursuit of compassion is a war against hatred, antipathy, meanness and inhumanity, then, consider me a warrior. And stocked within my magazine is an array of delightful ammunition: Missiles of Kindness, Firearms of charity, Love is my explosive, and Benevolence- my grenade. I’ve also got tomahawks of empathy but my warhead is made up of love and compassion. In its family, compassion who happens to be an offspring of love is a sibling to kindness and empathy. Benevolence is its cousin and charity, its kindred. Joy, peace, faith, hope, honour, patience, humility and fidelity are its next-of-kins. I once visited a Cheshire home for the disabled and physically challenged and I must say, I was moved by the by the sheer love oozing from the way and manner the pupils were managed by the care workers; hence, I am inspired to do likewise and if I can spur others too, then it’s all the more better.

Effects of a Lack of Compassion

From time immemorial, the world over has seen and continues to suffer innumerable consequences, owning to our inability to be genuinely compassionate toward each other. We are good at pontificating about love and compassion or at best we hypocritically exhibit a sonorous display of compassion apologetics without a corresponding action to justify our claimed position. We ignore the fact that compassion, like love, is less of what we say, and more of what we do. Racism, Slavery, Human trafficking, World wars, the Tulsa race Massacre, the Nazi Holocaust, the Armenian Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide etc. are some of the horrific eventualities inflicted by our refusal to be less fixated on ourselves, our inordinate ambitions, and embrace the obtrusively easy alternative of love and compassion. After all, if Hitler had any iota of compassion and forgiveness in him, the holocaust would not have happened. It brings me to wonder: Is man more innately wired to be selfish, hateful and wicked than to be loving, kind and compassionate? A quote attributed to U thant says, “Wars begin in the minds of men and in those minds, love and compassion would have built the defences of peace.”

Of late, I was taken aback when a doctor friend told me she hardly feels remorseful or compassionate towards patients, unlike when she began her medical career. Her reason being that she has seen on daily basis, countless cases of patients push up daisies, including a very dear relative of hers and hence, she has largely lost the capacity to feel compassion. I rebuked her, brushing off her excuse. And I went further to tell her she is one of the reasons for patients’ complaints about a perceived lack of compassion from health care professionals, particularly Doctors and Nurses, in recent times. Though, it is understandable that medical professionals were stretched to the breaking point during this unprecedented time of a global pandemic. Still I believe compassion should be a non-negotiable characteristic for all health care professionals, as it might go a long way to instantly improve the state and hope of the patients. That is not to say health care professionals themselves do not need our unfettered compassion. In fact, this period of pandemic has just reminded everyone how indispensable they are to us. We love them and are compassionate about their welfare. Essentially, everyone be it young, middle-aged or the advancedly-aged, irrespective of class, colour, creed, and profession needs compassion.

Compassion, Humanitarianism & Philanthropy

Our advancement in science and technology has been punctuated by a decline in our humanity. Little wonder, MLK once said, “We have guided missiles and misguided men”. Well, this does not mean humanity lacks good intentions. We do not, because if not, then on what grounds did we carry out the various ‘goods’ we’ve done and still doing? Certainly, not all of them were carried out with ulterior motives or am I missing something? So, on what basis were the various philanthropic and humanitarian organisations/programmes established? I believe among other things, that the underlying factor behind all the good works carried out by, ICRC, AAH, OXFAM, DWB, IMC, UNOCHA, Rockefeller, Bill &Melinda Gates, Atlantic Philanthropies, Novo Nordisk, MasterCard, Gavi, Ford, Great Ormond Street, CARE, Generosity.org, Welcome Trust, Stichting INGKA, Refugees Int, Water Aid, H20 for life, Musicares, Recording Academy, the Giving Pledge, Sweet Relief and countless others too numerous to mention can be summed up in one compassion-shaped ball. Speaking of generosity; like most people, I have the greatest regard for Mr Chuck Feeney; such a hugely generous man, one whose acts of generosity I believe, swells from the wellspring of a compassionate heart. There are also other great givers/philanthropists around the world who are equally giving from a compassionate heart and not because they want to draw encomiums to themselves. Still, there is far too little mother Theresa-esque love and compassion in the hearts of people (rich & poor) to make a real impact in our world today. You do not have to be wealthy to be compassionate, little acts of compassion from everyone make telling impacts beyond what we could possibly imagine. Humanity has good intentions but we must strive harder to prevent the bad/selfish motives from overriding them all. This is because one single regrettable action can ruin a century of compassionate/good ones.

Compassion and Mental Health

Having lived with the misconception that only indigent and less privileged folks need or deserve compassion, suddenly, you hear: Breaking News! Kim Jong-hyun commits suicide, Billionaire drinks poison, Tyson fury battles depression, Kanye West suffers from BPD, and you begin to wonder! How come? How come people that ‘enjoy’ the life you dream of are having problems? My friend, wake up and smell the coffee! Jettison the misguided notion that those who can afford the luxuries of life are absolved of the need for compassion, they are not. In fact, no one is. Some of the people that appear strongest or secure to the public perception are actually not that strong. A number of them are merely suffering in silence. Many are facing serious mental health issues you do not know about. Don’t be deceived by their public persona, like they have life all figured out. I believe, by being attentive to the needs of others and showing them love and compassion, we could help more people today, thereby preventing lots of potentially negative situations such as suicides. Lots of wealthy people passionately wish they can be more loved sincerely for who they are rather than for the deep pockets they own… My heart goes out to all mental health victims. As much as you can, avoid things that steal your joy and please try to stay happy; stay strong.

Compassion for Nature

Even nature is not left out of the need for our compassionate care. She is being hurt by us and she longs for our compassion. Nature deserves compassion and kindness as much as we do. A 2015 article on World Economic Forum asks: Is compassion the missing climate link? I firmly believe it is. In the build up to the Paris Climate Conference of the same year, the United Nations Climate Chief at the time, Christiana Figueres, remarked that “passion and compassion may lead us all the way to Paris”. Her comments are a no-brainer having seen the destructive effects caused by a change in climate due to our reckless and at times insensate handling of the environment. Thus, we need to be constantly conscious of nature’s health as it is vital to our own, as well as to our survival. We must compassionately seek to protect her as we do ourselves.

Dumping plastic and other waste materials in our most primary life support system (the oceans) is a sheer act of wickedness and perhaps ruinous ignorance. The same goes for deforestation and other forms of environmental degradation. There’s the need for us to sever all current human threats to our bio diversities and ecosystems. The conflagration that befell the amazon rainforest for instance, was avoidable and it should not be allowed to occur again. Imagine literally hearing the wailings of millions of species of insects, plants, birds and animals, as they plunge agonisingly into the abyss of extinction. The Congo rainforest, which happens to be the second largest rainforest in the world, is equally under heavy human threat. We must save her from such callousness and maltreatment. Everyone should be pained for nature. We are all indebted to her and at the very least; owe her a debt of compassion and fair treatment. I understand a massive global population constitutes a concomitant increase in the pressure for large scale agricultural production, but this should not come at the detriment of the earth’s chief pollinators (bees). Enough is not being done save them. Numerous other species of living organisms are yearly slipping into extinction as a result of our activities.

Well, the recent global increase in green economy investments and the use of renewable energy systems is a right step in the right direction for nature; nevertheless much work needs to be done. Compassion for nature involves gleaning from nature’s horse sense and closely following its pathways. Thankfully, fields such as biomimicry, permaculture, and agro-ecology have provided beautiful insights in this regard. I believe the principles surrounding these fields of study should be the way forward for everyone as far as nature and the entire environment is concerned. Compassion for nature is an exigency and as Albert Schweitzer once said, “Until we extend our circle of compassion to include all living things, peace will be an unlikely possibility”… Alright! Thank you ladies and gentlemen, kings and priests, lords, ladies, and everyone who has followed me through this journey of thought; please listen! This is the fight of my life and on this am I content to lose my breath, till a generation irrespective of colour or creed, rise for the acts of unfeigned compassion.

PS: Dew volinte, expect a song of compassion and an overture of the same. Want to read the poem that inspired this article? Click right here.