“Think if you became, if you become the person you're talking to...”

From an interview by Stephen Colbert with Steven Spielberg, about his new movie Disclosure Day:

Colbert: There are many moments in this when Emily Blunt’s character, without giving anything away, expresses this empathy toward people and it doesn’t just get them out of a tight bond at times, it actually changes the people to whom she is expressing this inner power of hers and those are some of the most beautiful moments of the film.

Spielberg: I think if you became, if you become the person you’re talking to, even if it’s for five seconds and in five seconds to understand deeply everything this person’s been through throughout their entire life before you come back to yourself, there would be a lot more cooperation between our own species on this planet.

An excerpt from a short story I wrote for young L., back in COVID days, when she was quarantined:

Over the days that followed “it,” both Ellery and Morepeth found themselves, without really thinking about it, without any intention, becoming — kinder? Maybe that wasn’t the word? More understanding? Empathetic? Considerate of other people’s feelings? All of those, really.

Take Sully Gufstason, for example, a kid in their class. A kid who’d been in their class since grade 1. Sully was the kid — there, alas, always seems to be one — who nobody understood. Sully was different, no doubt. Eccentric. (“Interesting” if you were more open-hearted). And he was made fun of, teased. “Sully Guffy” was the nicest of the many names he was called, repeatedly. “Nice hat, Sully Guffy,” the more bullying kids would yell. Ellery and Morepeth weren’t bullying kids. Not at all. But they also sat passively by, watching Sully get bullied.

Until. It. And the — kindness?

Something changed. They started talking to Sully. Treating him like a real person. Which, of course, is what he was. They invited him to their garden to help tend the — many — beets. And others followed in their example. Not everyone. Not all the time. But enough that Sully started to enjoy going to school. Which he never had before.