Who cares?

When I was working as an intern at a not-for-profit in Washington DC, much later in life than most people, I noticed a certain segregation in what people cared about. The environmentalists were vegan but smoked. The fair traders didn’t take frequent cigarette breaks, but ate meat and drank mainstream (non-fair trade) soda by the gallon. It was as if people could only care about so many things deeply, and therefore had decided the rest would just have to wait. As if the grief and anger that drove their activism had a hard stop in some random place.

This is the reflection I am sitting with this morning.

At the time I think I thought people had been smart: they were not giving into empathy fatigue and had figured out a way to conserve energy and spunk. Now I am not so sure.

In the end, I think what is finite isn’t empathy, but time. We are exhausted, but not naturally numb. If we allowed time to truly feel, would we choose to feel uncaring? I hope not.

Next class: virtual vinyasa Wednesday May 11 at 16:30 UTC, 12:30pm Brooklyn. See you there?

If you are interested, I’ll be teaching morning mindfulness next week, May 16-20 at 7am at YogaSole. Each morning we will start with 15 minutes of guided mindfulness meditation, then move into a 30 minute all-round asana flow to gently wake up the body, and finish with 5 minutes in silent savasana or seated meditation. While every day's practice will build on the day before, every session is stand-alone and can be taken as such. No prior experience of meditation or asana practice is needed. If you are in Brooklyn, come wake up with me!