<p>Would anyone be willing to offer suggestions, books, movies, etc. that can help cultivate compassion in oneself?</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>What a broad question… are you asking for you child? Or for an adult? We work on this every day in our house, I don’t think we learned it from books/movies/etc. Although I will say that none of us are drawn to books or movies that are the opposite of compassionate (slasher movies, horror, etc.). A couple of members of our family attend the Unitarian Universalist church, which has a strong emphasis on compassion as a focus of discussion and behavior.</p>
<p>“A Fine Balance” by Mistry
“Nickle and Dimed” by Ehrenreich
Mean Girls (2004?) movie
Grapes of Wrath–Steinbeck</p>
<p>If you don’t know what “dirt poor” means and the reality of a caste system, “A Fine Balance” will teach you.<br>
“Nickle and Dimed” shows the reality of low paying jobs (transportation, work conditions)
“Mean Girls” is a good movie on all sorts of levels–humor, morality, how degrading bullying can be.
“Grapes of Wrath” is simply a great book where you root for characters who have slim to none chance of surviving successfully based on economics of the time and their social class. And it did make a difference politically when it was released.</p>
<p>[Not</a> Today Movie Tickets, Reviews, and Photos - Fandango.com](<a href=“Not Today Movie Tickets & Showtimes Near You | Fandango”>Not Today Movie Tickets & Showtimes Near You | Fandango)</p>
<p>This movie…Not Today…is in theaters now. It’s about human trafficing in India and one indifferent young man who has a personal encounter with it.</p>
<p>“Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver
This is a great book because it presents the same life situations from different family viewpoints. It is really good on audio (I’ve listened 3 times and never read it.)</p>
<p>“Random Family” by Adrienne Nicole LeBlanc</p>
<p>This speech by David Foster Wallace: [DAVID</a> FOSTER WALLACE, IN HIS OWN WORDS | More Intelligent Life](<a href=“http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in-his-own-words]DAVID”>http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in-his-own-words)</p>
<p>Book or Movie
“To Kill a Mockingbird” </p>
<p>Movie
“Amazing Grace”</p>
<p>Sorry I can’t recommend- compassion is something best put into practice, used to do some good. Not cultivated through second hand experiences. Why not just get out there and start doing something for those in need?</p>
<p>I assume you meant fictional books and movies but I would also suggest books by the Dalai Lamas or similar that will help you understand and put into practice :)</p>
<p>My D2 and I were discussing this more tonight. We think that rather than reading or watching movies, the best way to develop compassion is to volunteer in some way that brings you in direct contact with people who have much less than you do. We have done work with subsitence farmers (immigrants), given out food to families at food shelves, and door knocked for campaigns in some very poor neighborhoods and apartment buildings. Being face to face and talking with people who are burdened by poverty and illness will do far more than any book or movie could.</p>
<p>But if you also want to read, “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder is a good one.</p>
<p>I can vouch for a lot of poor, elderly, youth and others desperately needing help, including direct service volunteers. Volunteering at a soup kitchen, low income school or community or homeless shelter can be quite an eye opener. Your local United Way likely has volunteer options. Meals on Wheels and Food Pantries also serve many in need.</p>
<p>This article I saw today made me think of this thread. This study would say “read fiction”.</p>
<p>[Reading</a> Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer | TIME.com](<a href=“http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/03/why-we-should-read-literature/]Reading”>Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer | TIME.com)</p>
<p>Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care</p>
<p>4-minute video from the Cleveland Clinic. Warning: this video can make you cry.</p>
<p>[Empathy:</a> The Human Connection to Patient Care - YouTube](<a href=“Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care - YouTube”>Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care - YouTube)</p>
<p>There were a few books my kids read when they were young that I could see helped them develop compassion.</p>
<p>The first: There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom by Louis Sachar. About a little boy who has some problems at school and a teacher that helps him. My youngest used to tell me how sorry he felt for the boy and if he met someone like that at school he would help him and be his friend.</p>
<p>To Kill a Mockingbird - obviously</p>
<p>And the third, unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of. It’s a short story in a book that was a collection of short stories about sports by classic authors like Jack London. This particular story was about an African American boy who tries out for the basketball team but doesn’t make it. It was an all white school. My son read the story and told me how mad it made him that the coach didn’t treat him fairly. It really affected him. I have since tried to find the book so I could buy a copy for my young nephew but couldn’t. If anybody else has a clue what book this is in, I’d love to know.</p>
<p>Read Charles Dickens and its scathing expose of the England of his times, the gap between haves and have nots, and the idea that the poor were poor because they were lazy, unworthy people, not people who because of the class system and economic conditions didn’t stand a chance…(and yes, it is relevant, we are having the same tired old Benthalmite/Ayn Rand ideas brought back from the dead and being pushed as ‘the truth’). </p>
<p>Volunteer at a VA hospital and see what kind of conditions our young people are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe people won’t be so quick to yell for military action, like those wanting to commit troops to Syria. </p>
<p>I think one of the best ways to learn compassion is to actually confront things. If you work in a soup kitchen or group helping the poor, and talk to them, you start realizing they are human beings with hopes and dreams, most of whom are trying to do what they can to survive and more, and you start realizing there by the Grace of God go I. Work with women with kids in a battered women’s shelter, and you realize how much violence is still out there in the homes, often not reported; work with women who have been in the sex trade, and you start understanding desperation and also of being exploited; work with LGBT youth in shelters who have run away from home, and you realize just how much the line about ‘hate the sin, love the sinner’ is a load of BS, it is simply about hate; Go on a mission trip to Appalachia and see people who literally seem to have given up hope of anything better, it is aweful in the true sense of the word (not the people, that they have been allowed to feel like no one cares about them, that there is no hope; the people in those places if you were hungry would give you whatever food they had and go hungry themselves). </p>
<p>One of the ways of learning compassion is to see that many of the assumptions you make aren’t true about people and also realizing that what you have experienced is based on where you started from, where you live, and that not everyone is so fortunate. More importantly, it is being around people different than yourself and suddenly understand they aren’t all that different then you.</p>