“Wherever you are, I hope you’re listening. Kindness is easy, as you know perfectly well. Because with kindness, you’re not really giving anything. I’m talking about giving your soul to your fellow human beings—and not just to the ones you love. I’m talking about compassion. Compassion means “to suffer with”: to suffer because someone else is suffering, to endure with the other, or in place of the other. You have no idea what that even means.
I can finally speak my mind, because I’m not afraid of you anymore. You always functioned as a mirror for others; you changed according to what each person wanted from you. But you always came up short, your whole life. You were always telling me, “I give to you, I give you everything.” But you never gave me anything. I can’t remember a single thing you’ve ever given me, other than exhaustion—and that exhaustion came in perfect doses, just enough so I wouldn’t be completely destroyed, and would stay with you for exactly as long as you needed me.”
Margarita Karapanou, tr. by Karen Emmerich, from “Rien ne va Plus,”
