Our sympathy to daughter-in-law Jenny for the loss of her cousin. I understand he was a very special person. I think formal respects were paid yesterday.
Grasshopper No.4 actually suggested I talk about the big "E". It stands of the word "empathy" which gets confused with the words "apathy" and "sympathy".
Empathy is the ability to share in another's emotions, thoughts or feelings. It is a special gift. If you are empathetic, you can mentally transport yourself into another's situation and actually understand in some depth, the pain or elation that goes with a situation. It sounds easy. To understand another's feelings is difficult..
Empathy gets confused with "apathy". I've heard people say "I have apathy for you". They don't mean that because the definition of apathy is "lack of emotion, lack of concern or indifference". If I have apathy for you it means I could care less about your situation. Mixing up the words "empathy" and "apathy" is not a good thing.
Grasshopper No.4 introduced another word that adds confusion, "sympathy". Most often it is used to convey compassion for another's troubles. It means you care but not necessarily that you can transport yourself mentally into another's situation.
All of your experiences in life build up your personal resources allowing you to place yourself in another's situation, many times because you've "been there". For example, I have empathy for any family that experiences suicide in their family because it happened in our family. There are emotions involved that most others can not understand.
When you can emphathize with another person and truly care, it makes you a better person. That makes all you Grasshoppers great people.
Love,
Dad