These tiny creatures...

...as it turns out, have the ability to empathize with each other.

Being a Father has re-awakened some of my deepest held beliefs. Now, more than ever I want justice, peace, hope and love to pervade our planet. This is just a small part of this re-awakening. I don't want Maya to live in the same world in which I live. This makes me realize that I have a huge responsibility to change things that surrounds us - just how, I don't know.

I do know that as I drove to visit 'Casa Communitas' on Thursday evening, I was captivated by a story playing on some Canadian radio station. The host of the program was interviewing a researcher from Montreal that had discovered that mice actually empathize with one another. As these mice live together, they grow very attached to one another and are able to console one another as they are faced with an impending injection of 'pain serum.'

It made me think that if mice could empathize - to have the ability to project "a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it" (Websters) - shouldn't we be way better at this? Shouldn't we be able to look into the world of someone else who is experiencing pain and be about the business of infusing their life with the good that we have been given in ours?

The crazy thing is - these mice communicate this feeling to one another through their eyes. It has become far to easy for us to not stare into the eyes of those who are oppressed and understand what they are facing, and give them hope. These eyes are from a child in Darfur.



Now, I know that there are many problems all around the world - but this one is huge and something needs to happen soon. I do know that if that face was Maya's, I would be trying to do a lot more. I know that is wrong - I do want Fatherhood to change some things in me.