I can't relate so I don't know

Those of us who care, try to understand others. We try to understand why they do what they do. We also try to understand how it feels to be in their shoes.

But we have no freakin' idea. A waitress serves me. I show appreciation towards her. I imagine what it must be like to be on your feet serving people for 8 hours a day - or does she work longer shifts than that?

I hear that something tragic happened. I might feel sad for the people affected. I might try to imagine how it must feel to be in that situation.

I have no idea! I think I'm empathetic but I'm not.

I have a few very new experiences this week. They opened my eyes to how people going through similar things must feel. They opened my eyes to just how much I just don't know what other people go through.

What events conspired over the last week?

1. I worked in a professional kitchen for 6.5 hours, preparing food for a bat mitzva that was happening right outside the kitchen door.
2. I told my grandmother something about myself that I knew she would take very badly.
3. I babysat a family with a 2-year old daughter and 2-month old twin boys.

I've thought, what must it be like to work hard in a professional kitchen. I've thought what it must be like for people to be open with their family about things that go against what the family believes in. I've thought what it must be like to care for children from multiple births.

I HAD NO IDEA.

So what do I know now? Well, I know those topics a little better. And I also have ingrained in me, at least a little deeper now, that I can't relate to most people's situations and so I literally do not know!

QE