We often talk about empathy as an emotional virtue,
but it’s also an imaginative art.
Before I can empathize with
you,
you have to become real to me.
I have to listen to you, I have to
tell myself your story.
I have to imagine what it is like to be you
with
your illness or your situation or your aspirations
or whatever it is.
If you don’t have empathy, other people might not exist for you.
- Rebecca Solnit -
