{"id":72,"date":"2013-11-14T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/c5ae3698-2573-4487-b730-8e38199e2bab"},"modified":"2013-11-14T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T05:00:00","slug":"the-fullness-of-being-known-the-story-of-pathos-sympathy-and-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=72","title":{"rendered":"The Fullness of Being Known: The Story of Pathos, Sympathy, and Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fullness of Being Known<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The Story of Pathos, Sympathy, and Empathy<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

By<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Joseph Anthony<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n


\nOnce upon a time there was a sorrowful star
\nnamed Pathos. He was always suffering and lamenting one thing or another;
\neverything was a drama\u2014real dramas as well as manufactured ones.  And often the manufactured ones caused him
\nmore acute suffering than the so-called real ones.  Things just didn\u2019t seem to go his way much of
\nthe time and as a result he lived a life of constant sorrow. <\/o:p><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

One day, an angel named Sympathy alighted
\nat his side and sat so still that he became like a pond that reflected what
\nPathos was feeling. Pathos rose and began doing one of his daily, majestic,
\ntragic dances. Sympathy rose and matched him step for step. Pathos smiled the
\nfirst smile he had smiled in ages as he watched Sympathy mirror and shadow his
\ndance of tears. After a few minutes however, the angel Sympathy vanished without
\na word into a sphere of light and was gone. <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Pathos sat back down in the garden of a
\nmillion stars<\/font> <\/font>and sighed. He felt better. He felt alive\u2014seen. No one had ever
\nseen him like that before. But within a day or so he was back to his suffering
\nand lamenting. It was then that another angel appeared. <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

This one was named Empathy, and she moved like the morning–gracefully
\nand subtly, with ever deepening gestures. She moved closer and closer to Pathos
\nand as she did Pathos felt like he was being perfumed with the fragrances of
\nlavender and amber. Gradually Empathy moved so close to Pathos that she slipped
\ninside his heart and began feeling what he was feeling. When Pathos rose to
\ndance, Empathy was in his shoes, in his limbs, in his blood and bones. Pathos
\nfelt exhilarated. Sympathy seemed to know what he was feeling, but in a
\nreflected sort of way\u2014and that was a wonderful experience in and of itself, for
\nmany people don\u2019t ever experience such a thing. But Empathy\u2014Empathy knew him,
\nknew why and how he felt; it was a knowing of identification, for Empathy had,
\nat one time or another, gone through what Pathos was going through. It was an
\nintimacy Pathos had never known before. And so when Empathy finally told him she
\nhad to go back to her abode of illuminated darkness, Pathos was understandably
\ndistraught. <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

She took Pathos by the hand and said: \u201cFear not, we are
\nnow one. I have left a little of my light within you, and you have given me a
\nlittle of yours. We will forever know one another. We will forever be joined by
\nthe bonds of sharing both suffering and joy. 
\nAnd if you want to feel me shining within you brighter than ever, then
\npass my light along to someone else.\u201d 
\nAnd with those words, Empathy vanished like swirling vapor into the
\nmoonlit sky.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Pathos stood alone once again.  He looked around his world, his stage of
\ndrama, and slowly, carefully, with a heart full of being known and touched, began
\ncrafting his next scene. <\/font><\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\"\"
Thank you for your support. <\/form>\n

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fullness of Being Known The Story of Pathos, Sympathy, and Empathy By Joseph Anthony Once upon a time there was a sorrowful star named Pathos. He was always suffering and lamenting one thing or another; everything was a drama\u2014real dramas as well as manufactured ones.  And often the manufactured ones caused him more acute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}