What if Irony is Judging Others for Lacking Empathy?
It’s ok
to complain.
In fact,
it can be healthy.
Except,
complain to someone
with skills.
The skills to summarize your complaint
far more succinctly
than you could
alone.
The skills to organize your complaint
far more clearly
than you could
alone.
The skills to guide your complaint
toward a resolution
you couldn’t reach
alone.
May we not waste our energy
with people who lack such skills
nor leave such people feeling hopeless
given their lack
of such skills.
When we live a life
too busy
to pause
to reflect,
we can feel overwhelmed
with things
to do.
We’re constantly seeking
to release our tension.
Yet no matter what we do
we don’t feel our tension
release.
Mired in tension,
we also don’t feel
we have any room in our being
to be fully present
with others,
to be wholly honest
to others,
to be sufficiently receptive
of others.
So we interrupt them,
we present them
with a mask of politeness,
we yell
and criticize them.
All behaviors
that fuel disconnection
despite best intentions
and our—ironically—
deep-seated need
for connection.
One of the simplest,
yet most important
and difficult things we can do
as founders
is to relieve ourselves
of our own tension,
by realizing empathy
with ourselves.
