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Peace be with you.

Welcome to a new week!

Let’s talk about movies for a minute.

Movies are an art form, and art is subjective. What one person loves, another may hate. A film may provoke deep emotions from some people and absolute apathy from others. And that’s okay. If I love a movie, and you hate it, we can still be friends.

What isn’t as subjective is when a movie has a message. It might get missed by members of the same audience and noticed by others, but the message is an object embedded in the movie by the writer and hopefully well communicated by the director.

I went to see Disclosure Day this afternoon, which is Sunday as I write this episode, and I’m afraid a very important message within the movie might be missed. Telling you won’t give away the ending, so don’t worry. No spoilers here. I’m just curious as to how many people heard it and took it to heart versus letting it slip past as we’re caught up in the action.

Empathy is a superpower.

Now, if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ll be looking for it, and I hope you do. If you have, did you catch it? It might be the most important thing said, and don’t worry. I paraphrased, so I won’t even spoil the quote.

Now, let me tell you why that’s important to the mission of this show: positivity can be a side effect of empathy, and even if you aren’t a natural-born empath, you can learn empathy.

It starts with curiosity. It seeks the answer to the question “why?”.

Why does that person behave that way? Why does that group think that way? Why is that leader trying to take us down that path?

For many people, the natural response is judgmental – maybe questioning an IQ or sanity. Maybe saying that belief in what you don’t understand is silly. Maybe tuning out and pretending you don’t care anyway.

But if you ask the question why and earnestly seek the answer without judgment, you can try to see things from the other group’s perspective.

You can understand why they feel what they feel, and that is empathy.

Lacking empathy takes us on the low road. Lacking curiosity keeps us from understanding our neighbors.

Showing both gives us a chance to peel back the layers of the onion, get past the stink of superficial commentary, and truly connect on a human level.

And when you connect soul-to-soul, you can’t help but think more positively about the human race.

Empathy is our superpower, and lucky for all of us, it can be learned, practiced, and nearly perfected.

So my challenge to you today is to look at someone you’d normally blow off because you don’t agree with them and gently, earnestly ask why. Why do they think that way? What makes them feel that way? If you were in their shoes, might you feel the same?

You don’t have to agree with them, but you should at least try to understand them.

Go forth and use your superpower!

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