tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28676316.post4120972437795901593..comments2024-03-29T07:43:55.457-04:00Comments on Moristotle & Co.: Sad like JesusUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28676316.post-33602161985711289752016-07-23T17:06:15.642-04:002016-07-23T17:06:15.642-04:00James, your comment makes me wonder whether my ess...James, your comment makes me wonder whether my essential "shortcoming" in my lifelong failure to regard Jesus as "the Christ" (i.e., as divine) has been my proclivity to regard others as fellow sufferers. The same proclivity probably conditions my fellow-suffering empathy for all living creatures.Moristotlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02211602374384087074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28676316.post-8009344450110035532016-07-23T16:58:36.730-04:002016-07-23T16:58:36.730-04:00Thank you, Eric! While I probably "overweaned...Thank you, Eric! While I probably "overweaned" in comparing myself to Jesus Christ, I would nevertheless like to add that my own "global consciousness" of suffering extends to other animals than humans in the kingdom, as well. Hence, my caring about elephants, for example. Working on my hands and knees in the garden, I take care to respect worms and beetles and frogs and....Moristotlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02211602374384087074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28676316.post-75468012892521534272016-07-23T12:03:32.899-04:002016-07-23T12:03:32.899-04:00Eric, your comment about group emotions brings to ...Eric, your comment about group emotions brings to my mind the dynamic found in theatre. And Morris, your piece immediately made me think of the play, "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot," by Stephen Adly Guirgis. The play does a better job of humanizing the Christ, than anything I heard in seven years of Catholic schooling.lonliestliberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13239098493275780468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28676316.post-58861779025104853292016-07-20T11:22:04.164-04:002016-07-20T11:22:04.164-04:00Playwrights long ago learned the trick of uniting ...Playwrights long ago learned the trick of uniting a crowd with emotion. Comic routines are built around pulling everyone together through laughter. Preachers and politicians will often use humor to get the congregation/audience in emotional sync, and then hit them with the zinger, the key message. With the group emotions in unison, the message goes in with greater intensity and group identification than it might have if delivered without the comic overture. Sorrow does the same thing, I think, although more subtly and deeply. While humor delivers short-term effects, sadness lingers. It is probably the emotion that most links us to other human beings. It is the opposite of judgment, which is so often based on anger or fear. It was the observation of suffering (as we are told by some) that led the Buddha to determine a life path of helping others. Can we honestly look at the human race as a whole and not feel sorrow? That kind of perspective, not to mention that kind of honesty, is not for everyone. But in a person with truly global consciousness, such as the name you mentioned (as we are told by some), the sorrow would be an inundation: overpowering to the one feeling it, and repellent to those around him. I can think of no more human—and humane—type of identification with our fellows.Eric Meubnoreply@blogger.com