I Want to Care More About Haiti
I feel stuck, and I think I might know why. I’m just not sure what to do about it.
The truth is that I don’t care as much as I know I should about last week’s earthquake in Haiti. It’s not that I don’t feel sad. I do. But with every piece of news I hear or see, I feel an instinctive desire to put my defenses up and not “feel too much.” And I’ve been feeling guilty about it, like there must be something wrong with me.
Then today, I was reminded of something I’ve heard Shane Hipps talk about:
…the electronic age is marked by empathy at a distance. This is a condition that emerges when our TVs and computer screens flood our living rooms with images of planetary suffering: from September 11 to the Tsunami to Darfur to all the other ongoing famine, genocide, wars, and starvation in the world. While this allows us the opportunity to extend compassion to these far-off places, it actually has the opposite affect. There is an immediate outpouring of support followed by a detached, clinical numbness.
The end result is apathy and inaction. This is not our fault; it’s not because we are bad people. The human psyche isn’t designed to withstand all the weight and trauma of global suffering without shutting down. (from the Q website)
It’s helpful to know that part of my lack of empathy is perhaps due to my design. But its also a sobering reminder to me that if I am to care about things that deserve caring about, I may need to care about less overall.
What I mean by that is that I truly want to care more about the tragedy in Haiti. I think it deserves my caring deeply about it. But if my capacity to care has already been worn down by non-stop exposure to things of lesser tragedy, then perhaps I need to limit my exposure to those things.
But how? How do we determine what and how much to filter out? When is something truly worth our deepest care and concern? How can we make sure our minds and hearts are ready for compassion when it is needed most?
