Quote Number 3
"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."- Sydney J. Harris
... Regrets are often present when we're unhappy with choices we've made, whether that be things we've said, things we've done, relationships we've made, or something as simple as what we ate; However, we don't really look past the obvious and realize if there are things we've done that we probably should regret or would regret if we knew we were doing them. For instance, this quote talks about how if you can't grow comfortable with your own self, the one person you spend all of your time with, then how in the world are you going to be able to share yourself with somebody else? It also kind of puts an emphasis on the fact that we typically, as humans put ourselves before others without even knowing it. This quote is very much alike what I was talking about with "Into the Wild" because we often empathize for ourselves. We don't always view our self empathy as empathy at all, on account of our confusion of our emotion- be it distress, anger, sadness, etc., we don't always know what it is that is causing us to feel that way. So we get scared and start to feel sorry for ourselves, all because we don't understand why we're feeling another way. Another possibility, is that our sub-conscience really does know why we're feeling that way, but it's too hard to focus on the real pain and where it is coming from, so we just sulk and feel sorry for ourselves. So really, feeling empathy for ourselves isn't always the most helpful thing to do, especially when you could be supporting or be a companion to someone who might potentially feel the exact same way. It all comes down to communication with one another and that's all it takes to fill our world even more so with empathy. [Interesting point of view. Some suggest that acts of selflessness or sacrifice are really attempts to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. It can get confusing. Overall, however, you have compiled a good tapestry project here. The sources are varied and relevant. You could have reached even further back for some period pieces, but overall the effect is a good one. Consider adding some media connections, too. One might consider how advertisers exploit empathy to sell product . Now, there's a conundrum. Good work, Ellen.]
