[Gatz Posts: 204 Status: Offline Single and looking]

A little essay of mine, "Confessions of An Empathy Junkie," has been published on Medium.com.

If you'd like to see it, open Medium.com, then search "Empathy" and "Elasky."

Thanks,
Gatz

[Pons Posts: 3,477 Status: Offline]

Congratulations, Gatz!

eta: I couldn't find your article before, but V's link got me there and I enjoyed reading it. You're right. We have to write characters we can connect to. Thanks.

[Vijaya Posts: 8,618 Status: Offline LISTEN. Let all mortal flesh keep silence ... WWW]

That was a good article, Gatz, or should I be calling you St. Gatz I agree that empathy makes for much stronger characters.
 Here's the direct link: https://medium.com/@danelasky/confessions-of-an-empathy-junkie-213da05fb69e

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 6,526 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

What a lovely reminder that we are all human, well, except for the praying mantis. But even it may have prayed for you. Happy Thanksgiving and congratz on the publication.

[dewsanddamps Posts: 2,936 Status: Offline]

Congratulations, Gatz!

[andracill Posts: 6,695 Status: Offline Worlds within...screaming to get out! WWW]

Lovely article, Gatz.

[Arona Posts: 513 Status: Offline The house didn't fall on me. It fell on my sister.]

An article worth the words (and reminders).  And congrats on the publication.

(I, too, had a "praying mantis"--a turtle for whom I stopped traffic on a busy route. And I can't forget loose chickens and a rooster in DC...which ended up involving weapons and police, but the chickens and rooster were saved unscathed, less their stress.  )

Thanks, Vijaya, for including the link.

[Gatz Posts: 204 Status: Offline Single and looking]

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. They're a real morale boost.

And thanks, Vijaya, for providing the link--to my own piece! (I'm such a basket case.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gatz

[dewsanddamps Posts: 2,936 Status: Offline]

Happy Thanksgiving, Gatz! 

[Ev Posts: 4,496 Status: Offline Making learning fun! WWW]

I enjoyed your article very much, Gatz.  Congratulations on the publication. You made good points.

I'll admit I've personally had mixed receptions to informing clerks of undercharging me. Sometimes, they've clearly resented my telling them, I guess because they didn't want to go through the hassle of making the corrections. And many times, they haven't thanked me, which is another way of saying they didn't really want me to do that, but are too polite to show it. Maybe not all stores have the "it comes out of your pocket" policy. I don't know, but sometimes now if it's only a dollar or less, I decide I'm following the Golden Rule better by saying nothing. 

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 6,526 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

Ev, me too. It's part of not sweating the small stuff. In my area, anything under a dollar is small change.

Arona, whatever happened in DC sounds like it may have been very out of hand. I'm glad no fowl or folk were harmed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Vijaya Posts: 8,618 Status: Offline LISTEN. Let all mortal flesh keep silence ... WWW]

You are welcome Gatz and  

Arona, I stop for turtles too. Once I had the pleasure of holding a baby! Cute as a button--perhaps only slightly bigger than one!

[Arona Posts: 513 Status: Offline The house didn't fall on me. It fell on my sister.]

I give back money (bank, casino, store, etc) if given too much, and have usually been surprised by the lack of response---which I tend to think is more shock on their part than anything else. People just don't expect people to return money. (Shock factor aside, I'm sure companies don't provide protocol for a patron returning over-payment, lol.)

Good or bad, things come back on me SWIFTLY, so while I do the right thing, in part it's because I think "what if it were me on the other end of this situation?" and partly because it'll bite me fast if I don't do the right thing.

Hope everyone had a warm, safe and  . Mine had a minimum 50/50 shot of being a full-blown Griswold gathering but, alas, that only happened during the last half-hour.