Compassion (UB#6)

This evening I watched 180° South with a friend. It was interesting to watch a documentary about adventure and then talk about adventures we’ve been on and want to go on, particularly in the context of talking about compassion in class. Since I became interested in hiking and traveling one of the dilemmas that has come up multiple times is the dilemma of whether or not these adventures are a good use of time and resources. I love a good day in the mountains, but if my time could be better spent elsewhere, what is the point of a day in the mountains? Compassion (a book we’re reading for class) talks a lot about relationships, this has prompted me to think about the relationships I have formed through adventure. In my experience adventures have created room for presence in a world that is not always open to presence. As part of one of my classes we read a book called Primal Vision. Primal Vision was basically a book about Christianity in African culture. One of the requirements of my class is that for every chapter and book we read we come up with a ‘takeaway’. Basically, a takeaway is a couple sentence summary that explains what we learned. Many of us found that our takeaway from this book was the importance of presence, the importance of simply being with people. Though the book is far to rich to sum up in a short quote, one of the things Taylor says is “The Christian, whoever he may be, has nothing to offer unless he offers to be present, really and totally present, really and totally in the present” (Taylor 136). Presence is the first step to compassion. In my experience, adventure has opened the door for presence and in turn compassion. I have had many a conversation about God while hiking with my coworkers. Those conversations would never have occurred with those people in the context of work, or even in our dorm. Being pushed to your limit mentally and physically in the context of grand adventures has helped me to learn more about my friends, not only through hearing their stories but through seeing the way they react to running out of food, or being hours away from the trailhead when the sun sets, or realizing that we didn’t bring enough water. Watching people watch beautiful sunsets and bask in the cool mist of a waterfall has not only grown my appreciation for sunsets and waterfalls, but for the creator of those things and in turn for my fellow appreciators of those things. Out of this appreciation compassion has come. Compassion for people whose stories are painful to the point that they don't even want to think about their pasts. When Jesus healed it was because he was moved with compassion, the miracles he performed revealed his solidarity with the suffering of humanity. The good news of Jesus is not found in the individual miracles he performed but in the fact that he suffered with us. Jesus, son of God, shared his presence with us. He relinquished his status as son of God. This was an act of compassion. If we are called to compassion (which I think we can probably all agree we are) then we are called to presence. True presence requires willingness to take on suffering. It requires that we carry other people’s darkest secrets. Full presence is in itself a form of compassion. For this reason, I will not abandon adventure. Adventure has allowed me to be to be present in the lives of so many people. If I really think that presence is the first step to compassion then adventure is something I cannot abandon until it ceases to provide this opportunity.