Your Empathy Echoes

Today I'm thinking about empathy, again, and I came

across this quote that I'd saved from awhile back.

And vice versa, of course.

I like the idea of empathy echoes, maybe because it just sounds cool. 

Or maybe because British-Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid is spot on. 

An echo keeps going once the sound has actually stopped.

I like to think that empathy keeps going, too.

Head. Heart. Hands.

Watch this clip to see that trifecta in action.

Cognitive: The young girl finds a need.

Affective: She feels the need deeply.

Behavioral: She cuts her hair to fill that need.

And her empathy echoes the minute she hands her hair

to her sibling, who has just returned from her chemo. 

This clip from values.com is similarly quite poignant.

The teenager understands his friend's need.

He feels that need profoundly.

He acts on it by shaving his head.

Grab tissues: It gets me every. single. time.

A 30-second Being There commercial,

an echo that hangs in the air and won't let go.

An empathy echo.

Your empathy echoes, dear reader;

who can still hear it today?