18 SEPTEMBER 2023 SOFTENING OF THE HEART

I watch a lot of documentaries, mostly about wildlife – their behavior and their struggles to survive. These well photographed films reveal so much, thanks to scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying specific species. Modern camera traps have also made it possible to view animals many times closer than we could see them in the field. These close-ups allow us to see into their private lives and to better understand them. Watching these shows stirs within me a mixture of emotions. They tug at my heartstrings, allowing compassion and empathy to flow through me.

In the mid-1970s I accompanied my husband to a talk given by Cleveland Amory, a well-known advocate for the rights of animals and a catalyst for companies to create “cruelty free products.” I purchased his book, Man Kind?, but I was never able to finish the book. Reading it sent unbearable pain through my heart, as I read about the torture inflicted upon other animals, to further human advancement. Later, I watched the movie, Gorillas in the Mist, about Dian Fossey’s lifelong study of and her fight to save the mountain gorillas. I have never watched this movie a second time because it is far too heart wrenching. Dances with Wolves, starring Kevin Costner, is another film that I found almost too painful to watch. It was more than twenty years before I could bring myself to watch it a second time.

Many people close their minds, and especially their hearts, to those things that might overwhelm them with emotion. Some simply pretend not to care, while others have perhaps hardened their hearts to such an extent that they truly cannot feel. It is as if the strings to their hearts have completely dried up and disintegrated. I am certain that there is a correlation between the hardening of arteries and the hardening of the heart.

Too many people today have closed off the flow of love in their hearts. Too much division, too much hatred, and too much anger are flowing through their veins, blocking the one thing that could steer us away from the tipping point of disaster. The only way to bring more love into the world, is to soften our hearts and to allow love to flow through them again. The love that we give away returns to us. Instead of turning away from the evil in the world, we must turn and face it. We must allow our hearts to warm, to soften, and to become pliable, rather than to hide in the darkness, becoming cold and hard. We must begin to care about those things outside of our own insignificant lives. We can change the world. We can change it simply by loving more.