the pain of empathy
an empath can hurt more than joy,
I feel the notes wrong more than the melody,
the ones who feel their separateness from a group,
the ones who eddy while the current flows fast for most,
for decades I have felt the draw of the group,
but I have also been unable to not see the one left behind,
my brother called it my “Rousseau fetish,”
for I keep seeing and connecting with those
whom Jesus called “the least of these, my brethren,”
as a teacher today, I do my best to celebrate
our students who successfully engage in their work,
my heart, though, is even more drawn to the pain
I imagine in those students who cannot yet move forward,
I walk for a time with them as they live their moments,
my joy as an empath with successes
can feel overwhelmed by the sorrows of those
for whom the way forward seems blocked and inaccessible,
“how are you?” I am asked,
and I answer that much of me is fine,
yet the empath in me,
sorrows.
by Henry H. Walker
March 1, ‘21
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