Radical Empathy

What is the purpose of the fairy tale or legend? I think their purpose is to teach us important lessons about living and life - lessons that our lived experience or the lived experience of our families cannot teach us. So many horrible tales do teach us about the unfairness of the world and cruelty of others (exactly why I could not write to Kahalaopuna at first - too much real life) but through the magic of sharing one of my fellow writers reminded me that one of the special powers imparted by writing is empathy and perhaps that too is one of the purposes of sharing fairy tales and legends. After all, who among us has not wanted to destroy another with a cone of hala nuts? Are we not all in danger of pursuing vengeance beyond the grave?

It is all too easy to read a fairy tale superficially and see only the bad luck, cruelty, and bad faith, but we need also to read the love, kindness, and generosity found in those stories and recognize the power of radical love, radical kindness, and radical empathy.