Compassion

From Wikipedia:

Compassion is a sense of shared suffering, most often combined
with a desire to alleviate or reduce such suffering; to show special kindness to those who suffer. Thus compassion is essentially empathy, though with a more active slant in that the compassionate person will seek to actually aid those they feel compassionate for.

Compassionate acts are generally considered those which take into account the suffering of others and attempt to alleviate that suffering as if it were one's own. In this sense, the various forms of the Golden Rule are clearly based on the concept of compassion.

Compassion differs from other forms of helpful or humane behavior in that its focus is primarily on the alleviation of suffering. Acts of kindness which seek primarily
to confer benefit rather than relieve existing suffering are better classified
as acts of altruism, although, in this sense, compassion itself can be seen as a subset of altruism, it being defined as the type of behavior which seeks to benefit others by reducing their suffering.

I truly believe in helping others less fortunate. I really do. Today at church they kicked off a month-long push to help the less fortunate in foreign countries. They are asking each family to purchase a tote box through the church, complete with a list of what is needed to be purchased to fill the box with non-perishable food items. Its a great thing to do. It really is.

I personally have always had a struggle with this form of giving. And I am familiar with the organization and am even related to the founder of this organization. I know the food is given to the needy in foreign countries. I know this and I applaud their efforts.

For me personally, I just feel we need to help those closer to us. We need to look around our own neighborhoods where we live, look at those we attend church with, work with, or the classmates of our children. There is need everywhere, there really is, maybe its selfish, maybe not, but why not help the people the closest to us that we can? Imagine if that could be done throughout the world, all of us taking care of our own and helping where we can...would that make a difference? Or am I just out there in my own world looking through rose-colored glasses?