Editor's note: This originally was posted Nov. 25, 2007. It seemed appropriate to resend in the Dec. 24 newsletter

Compassion. That is what I am writing about today, Nov. 5, 2007. Usually the Editor's Letter regards a news item, a current issue of politics or culture explained or illuminated in some fashion.

But we are humans, and our interests encompass all that it means to be human. Please, follow me as I meander from the worldly path of growth and development, strategy and implementation, Downtown Plans and road-building, into something even more fundamental.

All traditions have compassion as a foundational element. What is this? Compassion involves empathy, sensitivity, respect and regard for others. For some reason, we talk about it in regards to religion, but apply it far too infrequently to our worldly affairs, as if a person's spirituality must be severed from the person in order to function at work and play.

This does not mean we hold ourselves to impossible standards. We are, and must be, subject to human passions; to curse, argue, behave incomprehensibly. It is our job and duty as humans to work through these passions to find our compassion. I believe such is called enlightenment, and I do not expect to find that in my lifetime. But I am not absolved of the effort.

Recently, I was in a hospital, in the family room of the surgical floor. A man from Virginia approached a couple from Puerto Rico. They made small talk about the puzzle of the Golden Gate Bridge they were working on, to keep their minds occupied. Then the man told them his son had a brain tumor. The operation was still underway after something like 12 hours, and it was expected to be another six hours. They told him he was in their prayers. Whatever differences they had paled in comparison to their similarities at that moment.

The world is in crisis, and it is these moments that our worst and best instincts come to the front. I saw the best, the inherent compassion people in need have for each other. Why, on a community level, a national level, a global level, do we not feel the same thing? If we indeed feel a sense of crisis, as the media and the politics would have it, why is it preventing us from communicating at our best, rather than acting out of our worst fears?

Once in a while it comes clear to me, and I am able to find it and hold onto it. It provides clarity, strength and resolve, and brings me closer to becoming the human I was created to be.

What follows might induce cringing for many of you, steeped in the daily battles of life and fearful of appearing weak, or sappy, or silly. But c'mon, what harm can there be in allowing yourself the possibility that this is possible, and it is just as easy as thinking it; and even, that just thinking it leads to being it, and that is the thing!

So for the person who cut you off in traffic, compassion.

For the person who voted against you on the school board, City Council, County Commission or other government body, compassion.

For the person who speaks ill of you, compassion.

For the families of your enemies, compassion. For your enemies, compassion.

For the worker, for the boss, for the migrant in search of sustenance, compassion.

For your families, compassion.

And finally, for yourself, compassion.