Compassion and Enabling

Some thoughts from the link Keith commented on in the last post.

If you accept Dictionary.com's definition, compassion is the a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

Compassion is something that comes from within and is a feeling and source of motivation to act.  It does not specify what the act should be.  Suffering is not relieve by compassion but by an action motivated by compassion.  Not just any action, but one that improves the suffering situation. Some actions can worsen the situation.  We call this enabling.   If only we knew what the right action would be in most situations.  Beware of anyone that says they easily know.  Somebody smart once said that for every complex problem, there is a simple solution, and it is wrong. 

It is a Type I versus Type II error issue.  The more cautious you are in providing "help," the more likely you are to fail to provide real help in situations in which help is needed.  The more liberal you are in providing help, the more likely you are to enable a person's undesirable situation.  Both are lazy and probably driven more by our own issues.   

I am less interested in either the conservative or liberal approach.  They both miss the mark, just on opposite sides. 

We are back to finding the narrow ridge, with extremely near sighted vision.  We may not know where the path is, but we certainly know we are not on the path when we are tumbling down one side or the other.  I think we constantly need to unashamedly ask each other, with each and every step, "Are we on the path?"