Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding her or his feelings. Sympathy comes from the Latin sympatha, from Greek: συμπάθεια transliterated as sympatheia, from συν + πάσχω = συμπάσχω literally: to suffer together or "feeling with." It also can mean being affected by like feelings or emotions. Thus the essence of sympathy is that one has a strong concern for the other person. Sympathy should not be confused with empathy (more than simply the recognition of another's suffering, empathy is actually sharing another's suffering, if only briefly).
Sympathy exists when the feelings or emotions of one person are deeply understood and even appreciated by another person. In common usage, sympathy is usually making known one's understanding of another's unhappiness or suffering...
...The psychological state of sympathy is closely linked with that of compassion and empathy.
- from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathy)
Usually, people symapthize with others who are feeling sad, angry, lonely, disappointed, scared, and whatever. It's what people do to cheer another up. but what's wrong with people today is that they try to tell the other person that they "perfectly know how you feel", but most really don't. yes, it may be just a way to cheer another up, but most of the time (if not all the time) it doesnt help a bit.
Reading from a depressed friend's blog, someone comments on her post "...ok ra na...blah blah". what's wrong with this statement here is that it assumes the situation is okay, when in fact it isn't. you'll only get the grieving person more irritated at your attempt to cheer them up. most people find that these are the only words they could conjure up to comfort a friend in need.
their mistake : you dont need words.
Words say too little of what is felt, and too much of what is in the heart. it is useless to the friend-in-need, because what he/she can only hear is the echo of pain, anger, and hurt... words can be misunderstood. and words cant really say what we really want.
that's where silence comes in.
silence can never be understood. in silence, a person's presence is enough, for silence is the best way to convey feelings, without being misunderstood.
silence is the voice of what we really feel inside...
... when we are mute by the words of our mouth...
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