The Fashion of Compassion: Why it's a Mistake to Rate Human Suffering

I often wonder if it’s possible that a wealthy housewife on the Upper East Side might be suffering just as much as the homeless man sleeping on the corner of her condo building. She may not be starving or forced to sleep in the cold, but if there was such a thing as a richter scale for human anguish, perhaps she’d rank pretty high even though outwardly it appears that she has everything she wants and needs. Someone like her could easily be overlooked because our pity buttons don’t get pushed easily enough when we look at her due to our own assumptions and biases. After all, how hard can her life be if she can afford that Chanel suit? ...

Read Lawrence's article at Open Sky Zen