Last night, after a two-year COVID delay, I finally got to experience, in person, the incredible musicianship, energy, and harmonies of Jacob Collier in concert. This is how Wikipedia begins the entry on Jacob Collier:
The atmosphere at Boston’s House of Blues last night was filled with harmonies, with the audience in rapt attention, Jacob and his band and crew creating otherworldly harmonies, and no restrictions on photographs or videos! At one point, I did try to capture the exquisite harmonies of a Jacob Collier concert with this video:
I just searched YouTube for “Jacob Collier live audience harmonies” and immediately found this.
The teenage boys behind me in line seemed to know everything about Jacob’s harmonies and they were very impressed when I told them I had seen Miles Davis in Boston in 1969. The guy sitting next to me at the concert, who used to play guitar with Rahsaan Roland Kirk and who sang some great harmonies with me, told me he had seen Jacob twice before and that it was “life changing.” Jacob had so much fun creating harmonies with his amazing band and with us that I got home very late, but I’m ready to create harmonies with the world and at work as soon as I finish the harmonies in this blog post.
I look forward to the harmonies you create in the comments section below and thanks to all who help me create harmonies in this blog every day, including YOU!
Yesterday, in my therapy group, I wrote the word “empathy” twice on the white board.
I wrote “empathy” twice because I heard and experienced so much of it from the group participants. I especially noted and appreciated it because I hear and experience so little empathy, these days, from world leaders.
Why do the participants in a therapy group seem to have so much more empathy than world leaders?
Is it because people who have come together to cope, heal, support, and learn from each other naturally have more empathy?
What does your empathy tell you about that?
Here’s a definition of empathy, again:
em·pa·thy
/ˈempəTHē/
noun
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
synonyms: affinity with, rapport with, sympathy with, understanding of, sensitivity toward, sensibility to, identification with, awareness of, fellowship with, fellow feeling for, like-mindedness, togetherness, closeness to
“what is really important about learning a language is learning empathy for another culture”
Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is won and lost. And that someone’s pain is as meaningful as your own. — Barbara Kingsolver.
Sympathy relies on a common experience. If you’re clumsy, you might have sympathy for others who tend to bump into things. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person’s feelings even if you’ve never experienced them yourself. — Joe Gebbia
A prerequisite to empathy is just paying attention to the person in pain. — Daniel Goleman
Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations towards violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control. — Steven Pinker
Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It’s all through our own individual prisms. — Sterling K. Brown
Empathy is the latest code word for liberal activism, for treating the Constitution as malleable clay to be kneaded and molded in whatever form justices want. It represents an expansive view of the judiciary in which courts create policy that couldn’t pass the legislative branch or, if it did, would create voter backlash. — Karl Rove
When you show deep empathy towards others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems. — Stephen Covey
The struggle of my life created empathy — I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me. — Oprah Winfrey
Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change. — Max Carver
Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals. — Neil Gaiman
Is there empathy in my other photos from yesterday?
Which of those photos represents empathy best, to you?
For me, it’s this one:
Or maybe this one:
If necessity is the mother of invention, what is empathy? Here‘s “Call Any Vegetable” by the Mothers of Invention:
Any empathy in this quote from Frank Zappa, the leader of the Mothers of Invention?
The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’s not open.
I look forward to the empathy in your comments, below.
Empathic thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.
the words when you’re singing at an Open Mic (like I am tonight),
to save your notes while you’re typing them after you get a new work computer that’s supposed to be better but which is making your life a living hell (as I told the Help Desk yesterday),
to be careful not to step in fresh concrete (as I did on Wednesday but apparently so did lots of other people),
that lots of other people share your anxieties and worries (which people discover in therapy groups),
If you had been all about when Michael and I were having that conversation, what might you have said about all of THAT?
When I searched all my previous blog posts for “What was that all about?” the second thing that came up was Day 967: The meaning of life.What was THAT all about?
What were all my photos from yesterday all about?
What is that last photo all about? It’s all about where I park my car (near Fenway Park). It’s also all about how I’m going to spend this evening — at a game night with other group therapists. I’m game and all about that, although I’m also all about spending the weekend with Michael, as much as I can.
I’m all about my son Aaron, so here’s his second “Misheard Lyrics” video from many years ago:
I’m all about your comments, so please leave one below.
I’m all about gratitude, so thanks to all who were all about helping me create today’s post and — of course! — to all of you!!
In the entire history of this blog, I’ve never used the word “historic” in a title. Does that automatically make this post historic?
Let’s check the definition:
his·tor·ic
/hiˈstôrik
adjective
famous or important in history, or potentially so.
“we are standing on a historic site”
synonyms: significant, notable, important, momentous, consequential, memorable, newsworthy, unforgettable, remarkable
Perhaps.
Here’s the historic inspiration for today’s post:
When you use the word “historic,” what do you mean?
Do you see anything historic in my other photos from yesterday?
Now that I’ve provoked you into thinking that there will be something witty and thought-provoking in today’s post, here’s something I saw yesterday:
Do any of my other photos from yesterday contain something witty and thought-provoking?
This photo …
… might have been something witty and thought-provoking if I had managed to get a clear shot of that moving car, with the witty and thought-provoking license plate “TA DAHH.” That would have been something!
Try as I may to post something witty and thought-provoking every day on WordPress, I continue to run into thought-provoking technical problems loading my photos that require me to blog from my phone. It’s more challenging to be witty and thought-provoking when you’re typing on a tiny little phone keyboard and are all thumbs.
Was that last sentence something witty and thought-provoking or just provoking?
Because of the Spinal Tap reference in this photo …
… here‘s something witty and thought-provoking from them.
I look forward to something witty and/or thought-provoking in the comments section below, but any comment will do. The last thing I want to do is provoke any anxiety in anybody.
Gratitude doesn’t have to be witty or thought-provoking, so here’s thanks to all who helped me create “something witty and thought-provoking” today and — of course — to YOU.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 