‘I believe compassion is a force to be reckoned with when we are talking about real social change’
Compassion connects BY GRACE McMANUS Growing up, my grandad was a brilliant man for the chats. A very spiritual fellow, he has a deep appreciation for the meaningful things in life. He also has an appreciation for language, and how words came to be. One of the many interesting things my grandad taught me was the origin of the word ‘Compassion’. ‘Compassion’, in English, comes from the Latin origin of the word ‘Compassio’, made up of ‘pati’ which means ‘to suffer’ and ‘com’ which means ‘with’. To suffer with. That has always stuck in my mind. During my campaign for the 2019 Local Elections I said I wanted to bring more compassion into politics. This was not rhetoric on my part - I was deadly serious - but as is often the case, the reality is different to the idea. This has led me to take stock and reflect on the question: how do we bring more compassion to politics, and most importantly, why should we? Let me begin with what compassion is not. Compassion is not sympathy, which a friend brilliantly described recently as ‘the act of saying to yourself “that’s sad” and then scrolling on’. Compassion is not doing a ‘random act of kindness’. There is no randomness to it, although kindness is often present. Compassion isn’t empathy; or an understanding of what the other might be feeling. Compassion, at least to me, is the choice to see suffering, to understand it on some emotional level, and to take a role in that suffering, to get close to it, to hold it in a wider context of hope and love, and to be brave in facing it, with the suffering person at the epicentre. I believe compassion is a force to be reckoned with when we are talking about real social change. How does it come out in politics? It can be the activist who stands at a door a little longer, listening, advising and connecting as someone spills their story. It can be the advisor, who meets the charity worker who is on a mission of change springing from their own story of pain. It can be the politician, who stands with the suffering of their constituent by honouring their story in the Dáil, Seanad, Stormont or Council chamber with legislation, motions or speeches. Dare we say, it can even come out in politics in those moments of human vulnerability of our
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• Grace with Jamie McDonagh promoting housing public meeting
political opponents. One incident sticks out in my mind, where in the recent elections a former TD of an opposition party had lost their seat and a republican hero of mine hugged them during their moment of great loss. A true example of political leadership and compassion. But how? How can we have compassion in what can justifiably be called the toxic, aggressive and emotive arena of politics? It’s true, there are many barriers. The first, I think, is anger. Anger in this climate of unnecessary
ISSUE NUMBER 2 – 2020 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 2 anphoblacht
