Welcome to Sunday All Day Brunch. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new with you. The words empathy and sympathy are often used interchangeably. They are different though. Empathy is understanding what others are feeling because you have experienced it yourself or can put yourself in their shoes. Sympathy is acknowledging another person's emotional hardships and providing comfort and assurance.
For example I can empathize with someone who has lost a parent. I've lost both of my parents and know how that loss feels. Someone who hasn't lost a parent can feel sympathy towards someone who has and provide comfort. I can empathize with someone who is a caregiver because I am a caregiver myself. Someone who has never been a caregiver can sympathize with someone who is and understand the difficulties.
Both empathy and sympathy require that a person steps out of themselves and into the shoes of someone else. They both require that a person steps back from their own judgments and realize that other people have rights too and we shouldn't be so quick to condemn as we may not have the full story.
J.R.R. Tolkien said in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Gandalf: “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment.”
From the Dalai Lama: Only a spontaneous feeling of empathy with others can really inspire us to act on their behalf. Nevertheless, compassion does not arise mechanically. Such a since feeling must grow gradually, cultivated within each individual, based on their own conviction of its worth. Adopting a kind attitude thus becomes a personal matter. How each of us behaves in daily life is, after all, the real test of compassion.