I ran across The Enemies Project today and watched the above video. I found it incredibly moving, so much so that I cried at one point and my empath dog Ruby came over to check on me. There are other videos that The Enemies Project has made; I hope to watch more of them. Empathy can be fostered in many ways; I’ve written quite a bit how I’ve grown empathy through reading, through walking in the shoes of another as their story unfolds on the pages of a book. Ultimately, empathy grows through listening, listening not for the purpose of forming our rebuttal, our response, our witty comeback, but listening to understand, listening to connect with the other’s feelings, with their story.

I am convinced we need more of this kind of interaction, with no debate tallies and no “winners” and “losers.” So much of our debate today ends with each side even more fully entrenched in opposition, in us/them, good/bad, right/wrong. In the conversation in the video above, there is the expectation that each participant will move from seeing things only from their own view to getting the perspective from the other’s seat. There is the expectation that they will witness the other’s humanity, the other’s beauty, the other’s fears.

All the best, everybody!