Empathy

Months ago I was hiking every weekend. Months ago I was living a life of hikes. I was hiking 21-23km per day and climbing 1200 meters per hike. Then I decided to try cycling groups, and since then I haven’t looked back. I really enjoy going for bike rides with groups. I like feeling safer than on a solo ride and I like chatting with people.

Before I met this group I saw the Moléson Via Ferrata Illuminée advertised and I organised the event in good optics. I expected that I would do via ferrata with people. In fact I don’t think I did. It’s a sport that I used to love, but that’s when I felt that the group was tight knit and empathetic. It’s because of feeling excluded that I went looking for other groups a year ago.

Two or three weeks ago I wrote that I hate Caribana but I also wrote that I have enjoyed the event the past. I also shared a walking route that I could use to get there and back, without using the car. For saying that I hate Caribana I was called a hater, and then that person tried to have a fight, in private via DMs. I said I’m not interested in an argument.

Over 107 years ago when the disease was not yet understood and under control when someone fell sick with leprosy they would be sent out of society to live alone in caves to avoid the spread of their affliction. It’s only later that the disease was understood and became treatable.

The documentary did not address much about the construction of the sanatorium except to say that convicts that were sentenced to death for a crime were made to build the ramparts around the city. These were two and a half meters tall and broken glass was put on the top. The aim was to keep the sick in. The local community was afraid of the disease that they did not understand.

When some people are away it feels pleasurable. The reason for which it feels pleasant is that they are loud. They will use the phone and have a full conversation when a three sentence e-mail will be enough. They will posture and show off rather than consider that not everyone in the open plan office needs to hear them pontificate for a quarter of an hour or more.

During the pandemic I noticed that people like to yell on their phones, rather than speak quietly. They speak to be clear, which is commendable, but they speak with such loudness that you hear it next door. You might think “So what? That’s apartment life” but that is precisely the point. If everyone yells on their phones then privacy is dead.