Empathy, on the other hand, takes work. It takes experience. It takes knowing what it feels like to be the victim of someone else’s quest for self-gratification, understanding what it is to be the person who messed up, and being able to access all that in a moment when your own selfish instincts are pushing you in the opposite direction. In this way, I think empathy is something we work toward, not something we ever fully achieve.
