Here ! The year 2021 has just finished in our good old Gregorian calendar and the hours of the year 2022 have already begun to pass… What horizon for this new year? I am pensive. My head is bending to one side. I am reflecting and a word is standing out and I then want to exclaim out loud:
Mutual aid
Last year it was the word together. This year, it is therefore mutual aid. The influence of my current reading (not yet finished) book intitled in French L’entraide, l’autre loi de la jungle written by Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle has something to do with it. Certainly I also observe that, to build together, it is necessary at least to adopt an united, altruistic, cooperative behavior.
An useful ability for mutual aid or cooperation? Empathy ! Empathy makes in particular possible to understand the world, the universe of another person without being personally affected by this exploration, hence its importance, at least, the one that I see (and sincerely hope not to be alone ). I recall the Carl Rogers‘s definition:
The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but without ever losing the “as if” condition.
Carl Rogers, A Way Of Being, p. 140, 1980.
I therefore wish that we can help each other, that we can embrace the immense sky: with solidarity!
Happy New Year 2022!
Sonia Kanclerski
