The importance of compassion in the face of misunderstanding

Sometimes it’s good to stick your head out of the sand and be aware of those around us, of who they are and what they experience!

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

This evening we watched an excellent film; 8 rue de l’humanité. Superb French dramatic comedy with the actor Dany Boone. One of my favourite French comedy actors right now.

The film is about a bunch of people in the same building living in confinement linked to the Covid in Paris.

Each character has their proper way of reacting to the situation depending, of course, on their respective lives and personalities.

Very funny and touching too.

This film made me realize what people may have been going through and are still going through at this time. We are lucky to have our own house; it is not a reality shared by all.

During this pandemic, there was a lot of suffering, but many good things came out of it. We tend to forget it.

It is November 2021, almost two years after the outbreak of COVID-19, and we may be about to face another variant that could do more damage than in the past.

Groups of people who are reluctant to vaccines, health measures, and anything that affects their egos keep making false propaganda to confuse people even more.

We are starting to vaccinate young children as governments warn us of the upcoming holiday crowds.

It is still far from over, and we have to get used to it. There are too many disparities between different parts of the same country that people cannot believe everything they hear is true.

I live in Quebec, in the Montreal area. Here, it’s the mask everywhere, while there is none of that in Abitibi, northern Quebec. It’s like there’s never been a pandemic. At most, an outbreak of winter flu, quite simply.

We must respect the difficulty people may have in understanding until we have been closely affected by the virus. As often in our time, what creates the most test is the ego.

This oversized ego. Everyone wants a quality of life that meets their expectations, but when it’s time to put in the effort that disrupts our habits, that becomes a whole different story.

“Instead of putting others in their place, put yourself in their place.” Amish Proverb

We are ready for anything as long as it stays away from us and doesn’t take too much effort — a question of good conscience. Finally, for most people, we will get through these complex and uncertain times without too much trouble.

We must not give up. We must continue to act with compassion and respect towards those who do not share the same ideas as us, even if it is sometimes difficult to understand the logic behind everyone’s motivations.

We are in Quebec, we say we are proud of our diversity, but it is impressive to see how difficult it is to respect this diversity! Isn’t there a bit of hypocrisy here?

Whatever our choices, we owe ourselves to remain patient and supportive of one another.

Let’s stay safe for the coming holiday season. And put our ego on the back burner for a few days. We owe it to ourselves!