"'Compassion' is a word that sounds good in anyone's mouth." -- Flannery O'Connor, Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction
Everyone likes the idea of compassion... especially the caustic. They love to slap “compassion” onto their endeavors in order to justify their evil. Compassion is the battle cry of the catamite, the sodomite, the trans, the abortionist, the communist, the feminist, justice warrior and the envious. “Compassion” is so powerful that anyone can use it for just about anything, no matter how un-compassionate it may be.
That said, true, Biblical, Christ-like compassion (com = "with" + passion = "suffering") is a rarity. It is found more often in mouths than in motion. It always sounds good, but it also always looks hard. So it remains merry an echo — a sound without a body, a reverberation without an action.
Real compassion requires one to be strong enough to suffer the weakness of another without forfeiting enough strength in reserve to pull them both back out.
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