Quote from JK Rowling

Every once in a while I read something that really resonates, and makes me go hmmmm.

The following is a quoted passage from a commencement address recently given by JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series:

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and
understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other
people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.
Of course,
this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One
might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to
understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations
at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own
experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other
than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can
close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them
personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares
than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental
agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative
see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

Apologies for the bad block quoting here (I still have not figured out Blogger), I am writing my own thoughts in red to clarify! As if you won't be able to tell. Rowling is just ever so slightly more eloquent than I am.

I have always been really sensitive, and I have always cared about everything a little too much. I have always been a little too empathetic. Seeing starving children on TV or reading an article about puppy mills, or thinking about the plight of manatees or Florida panthers or bald eagles or whatever, always sent me into a stomach-aching, hair pulling, agonizing frenzy. I'll never forget about when I first learned about genital mutilation. I was in fifth grade, sitting in the ID card office on base, and I saw a newsclip on CNN. I was horrified, but at the same time I wanted to educate myself, to find out more about what was being done to stop this horrifying practice.

At some point in my life, I have learned to turn my caring switch off. I just could no longer handle all of my own problems and process all the pains of the world at the same time. Now, if I see an article on something that might disturb me, I flip past it. I never, ever watch the news. But lately I have been thinking about how wrong this approach has been, and I am sorry that I have stopped caring so much. I realize I can't fix everything that is wrong, but once upon a time, I did try to do what I could to remedy the world's problems, or at least I tried to face them with my eyes open. It's not fair that I have the choice to simply ignore what makes me feel unpleasant while other people have to live out every moment in what I choose to ignore.

I don't think I got callous or cynical when I decided to stop paying attention; I simply think that I was tired and worn out. I could only focus on so much at a time and I just felt it was hopeless. Too much hurt to bear and so I chose to turn away. But I am starting to wake back up and realize that I can't simply ignore everything bad in the world. I don't really know what I am trying to say; I am not going to run away and join the Peace Corps or anything. I just would like to be more like who I used to be. Someone who cared and who thought caring could make a difference.