Etymology: Compassion

Compassion.
    When we're suffering, we'd rather feel nothing at all. We'd prefer a white canvas, untouched, over one splattered with paint. We push our emotions away.
    My friend told me that this was compassion, and that it was a gift. It made me want to know more about what the word means, so I looked it up.
    Compassion comes from Latin; com- means "together" and pati means "to suffer.
    So, the prefix com- means "together," which is simple enough. To do some further digging, I looked up the meaning of passion. There were multiple origins aside from the Latin. I found that the Greek pema means "suffering, misery, woe" and Late Latin "passio" which means "strong emotion, desire" (rendered from the Greek pathos).
    Basically, compassion means to suffer together. Why is this a gift?
    To feel is what makes us human. It's how we were created, to have emotions and desires. Part of the beauty of being alive is joy, which is completed by sorrow. We suffer, we laugh; we cry, we dance.
    I guess it's better to feel than to not feel at all. If we didn't feel sadness and anger, we wouldn't feel happiness and joy. It's hard to accept, but it's true.

Keep thinking,
Candy