“Empathy isn't just something that happens to us - a
meteor shower of synapses firing across the brain - it's also a choice we make:
to pay attention, to extend ourselves. It's made of exertion, that dowdier
cousin of impulse. Sometimes we care for another because we know we should, or
because it's asked for, but this doesn't make our caring hollow. This
confession of effort chafes against the notion that empathy should always rise
unbidden, that genuine means the same thing as unwilled, that intentionality is
the enemy of love. But I believe in intention and I believe in work. I believe
in waking up in the middle of the night and packing our bags and leaving our
worst selves for our better ones.” — American novelist and essayst Leslie
Jamison,
The Empathy Exams: Essays (2014)
(The accompanying photo of Leslie Jamison was taken at
the 2014 Texas Book Festival, Austin, Texas, on Oct. 24, 2014, by Larry D.
Moore.)
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