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"Human connections are deeply nurtured in the field of shared story."
-Jean Houston

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How can connections between people create friends?

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The Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) seeks volunteers for Community Connections, a program to help international students, scholars, and in many cases, their families connect with members of Yale, New Haven, and other local communities.

The program helps members of Yale's international community learn more about U.S. culture, improve their language skills, and make new friends. There are four different ways to participate in Community Connection programs including First Year Friends, Conversation Partners, English Conversation Facilitators, and Thanksgiving Hosts.

To provide more information on the programs, OISS will host a Community Connections Info Session on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. at the OISS offices at 421 Temple St.

"While each program has a slightly different focus, all of them exist with the express purpose of encouraging cross-cultural exchange and friendship," said Ann Kuhlman. "Students, scholars, and hosts participating in these programs almost always come away with new friends, increased appreciation of other cultures, and broader and deeper awareness of the world we all share."

Thanksgiving Hosts

Each fall OISS recruits volunteers to host two or more international students/scholars for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is an exclusively American holiday, so celebrating the day with an American family is a unique experience for many international students and scholars.

"We always have more international guests than hosts, so it's an area where we work especially hard to find hosts; it's a fantastic way to give back to the community," said Molly Hampton, OISS assistant director for program and communications, who manages all the Community Connections programs. Hampton says that OISS can guarantee that anyone volunteering to be a host will be matched with a guest. OISS also recruits and hosts students for Spring Break.

"Many international Yale students don't travel home for breaks, so it's a great way to provide them with some company while they remain in New Haven," said Hampton. "Even just getting away from campus for one home-cooked meal here and there can be a welcome respite from the quiet campus."

Past participants agree. A student from China who participated in the Thanksgiving program said her hosts were so kind that it felt like old friends meeting again. Another student from Russia participating in the same program added that "I felt like I was at home: the first time in my four years in the U.S."

First Year Friends

First Year Friends matches incoming first-year international Yale College students with local hosts who provide them with an introduction to the United States, New Haven, and Yale cultures. The program spans the entire academic year, with participating hosts and students typically meeting once a month to share a meal or enjoy activities such as hiking, day trips to popular Connecticut locations, local festivals, theater performances, or sporting events.

According to Hampton, First Year Friends is the most informal, and the most social of the programs.

"First Year Friends not only helps quickly assimilate international students into their new communities but is a fantastic kickstart to building new, enduring friendships," said Hampton. "It fosters awareness, acceptance, and empathy."

First Year Friends are usually matched at the beginning of the fall semester, so it is a good time for those interested in the program to register. However, Hampton says, registration is always encouraged regardless of the time of year because even if OISS can't immediately match people, they hold onto applications until a match is made.

Ron Heiferman, a volunteer who has participated in both the First Year Friends & English Conversation Facilitator programs for several years, sees participants as ambassadors for Yale, New Haven, and the United States. Heiferman is a Yale alumnus and an associate fellow at Berkeley College at Yale, and serves on the board of directors at the Yale Club of New Haven.

"Hopefully, in supporting these programs we can help insure that our student friends leave with a positive impression of our university, city, and country," said Heiferman. "And another benefit for me is that hosting these young people from abroad puts a pep back in my step!"

Suzanne Cooney, another long-time volunteer of First Year Friends and an English conversation facilitator, agrees with Heiferman, considering her time as a volunteer to be a truly unique, satisfying experience.

"Besides the great feeling of helping students transition from their homeland to Yale and New Haven, it has been so rewarding to establish so many friendships for life," said Cooney. "What could be better than that?"

Conversation Partners

The Conversation Partners program pairs members of the international community with an English language conversation partner. Participants are asked to meet at least twice a month, but each pair has the freedom to decide what works best for them. In meeting, they engage in various activities that can range from simply connecting over coffee to collaborating in volunteer activities, making day trips to local tourism attractions, or attending sporting events. OISS asks participants for a minimum one-semester commitment, but if both parties agree, the engagement can continue as long as they wish. Partners are matched based on need and availability.

"We've seen countless, ongoing close friendships forged through the First Year Friends and Conversation Partners," said Hampton. "I think their popularity stems from their informal, social nature. Both are wonderful programs for easily meeting new people and having fun together, with the silver lining being to enhance one's language fluency along the way."

English Conversation Facilitators

The English Conversation Facilitators program is instructional and leadership-oriented and is primarily focused on helping others improve language skills. Facilitators are responsible for planning and leading discussions of small groups of international students, scholars, and family members. The program takes place on weekdays 12:30-1:30 p.m. at the OISS office building at 421 Temple St.

"Being part of the conversation groups offered by OISS is a unique experience especially if you have just started to live in a foreign country," said Kezban Cetin, an English conversation group participant. "You can learn about the social and cultural life of people living in the U.S. from the valuable group leaders while you strengthen your bounds with social life. Besides, building new friendships with people from all around the world is perhaps the best way to broaden your mind."

According to Hampton, one does not need to be a trained educator to be a facilitator, OISS does require that those selected as facilitators maintain an ongoing weekly commitment to their group throughout an entire semester.

"We provide selected facilitators with resources and access to other group leaders to help them brainstorm discussion topics and activities that will help them more effectively lead sessions," said Hampton. "It's another amazingly fast and productive way to get to know many members of the international community here at Yale, all while helping evolve their language skills."

"It's only an hour a week, but I found being a volunteer extremely rewarding," said Grace Yun, one of the English Conversation Facilitators. "It's a privilege both to welcome newly arriving visiting students and scholars to Yale, New Haven, and the U.S. as well as to enhance their English ability to assist them in the pursuit of their academic studies and research fellowships. I look forward to exploring yet another unique 'slice' of the 'Global Village' in my conversation group as we engage each week in dynamic eye-opening intercultural dialogues this semester."

Besides the great feeling of helping students ... it has been so rewarding to establish so many friendships for life. What could be better than that?

Suzanne Cooney

This Community Connections program will be in full swing soon, and OISS is looking for volunteers for all four programs, particularly hosts for the Thanksgiving holiday. Hampton encourages anyone interested to sign-up right away by filling out the early registration form, indicating this program as one of their interests. Once registration officially opens, Hampton will be in touch with a more detailed registration form.

Hampton added that OISS is looking for volunteers who are friendly, curious, and empathetic to the needs of newly arrived international students, scholars, and families, and who are interested in the prospect of cross-cultural exchange right here in the heart of New Haven.

"While these Community Connection opportunities have always been important, we are in a particularly critical moment in our country's history where more than ever our international community needs warm, welcoming, and encouraging individuals in their corner," Hampton said. "While inviting someone out for coffee or into your home for dinner might seem like a small, insignificant gesture to most, it can turn into the defining moment of an international student's stay in the United States and make them feel welcome and truly at home here."

Go to Community Connections for more information and to apply as a volunteer, or contact Molly Hampton at Molly.Hampton@yale.edu.

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The Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) seeks volunteers for Community Connections, a program to help international students, scholars, and in many cases, their families connect with members of Yale, New Haven, and other local communities. The program helps members of Yale's international community learn more about U.S.

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How does art and nature connect?

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Arturo Garcia rose, bundled up in a puffy green vest and denim blue hoodie, and staked his easel amid the pale golden grasses of Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho.

It was so windy he had to keep one hand on a canvas the size of a school notebook. It was so cold an onlooker got out of her car to offer him her gloves - he could only wear one, as he needed a bare hand to manipulate the palette knife he uses instead of a brush to apply energetic lines and bold colors. Grass blew into his paint.

The Mexican-born artist based in the Denver area persevered for an hour and a half to record the moment last autumn when 10 American bison, tails whipping like flags, lumbered out of a trailer. The mini stampede and a similar release a year earlier were part of an effort by tribal leaders, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation to restore the majestic mammal to an ecosystem of which it is a key part and to the stewardship of a people who see their own marginalization paralleled in the near annihilation by white settlers of an animal sometimes called buffalo.

"I could not let that opportunity go," Garcia said in an interview months later in the kind of space in which he's more used to working: a cozy, well-lit studio at the Denver Art Museum, where he was doing a short residency.

"I did the real deal - plein air, 30 degrees, which felt like 30 below,'' he said of his work in Wyoming. "It's very challenging painting like that. Especially in the morning when shadows change so fast. The more challenging it got for me, the bigger the smile I got on my face."

The opportunity came to Garcia after conservationists and Wind River residents took note of his connection to bison. In 2014, he had set himself the task of painting the animals for which Colorado is known. He depicted elk, moose, sheep.

"The bison was the last painting I did in the series. It produced something in me I can't explain,'' said Garcia, whose work has been exhibited in U.S. and Mexican galleries. "I go on painting binges - portraits, trees, bison. Bison has lasted longer than any other.''

He has seen bison in small herds in preserves near Denver and photographed them in Yellowstone. A quest to learn more about his muse led to conversations with Native Americans. As Garcia gained Eastern Shoshone and other friends, he thought back to his own past.

"All my uncles were skinny, tall, with big foreheads,'' he said. "People would refer to them as Indians. And they didn't like it.''

Garcia began to question that sense of shame. He came to a realization: "To be Indian is a beautiful thing. To be human is a beautiful thing. I am of the land. I am of the universe.

"The bison has brought me to an encounter that I did not have any idea I was going to have with myself.''

As a wildlife artist with Mexican roots, it was natural for Garcia to take part in the Americas Latino Eco Festival, an annual event in Colorado co-sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation that has since 2012 brought artists, scientists and policy makers together to discuss environmental concerns. The children of NWF Rocky Mountains regional executive director Brian Kurzel took part in a workshop led by Garcia during the 2015 festival. Kurzel said he got more time to speak with Garcia at the festival the following year, when he learned of the artist's interest in bison and shared details of NWF's Wind River project.

The 2.2 million-acre reservation had been part of the bison's habitat before the U.S. government encouraged the extermination of millions of buffalo across the Great Plains and the West in the 1800s. For more than a century, no bison had roamed Wind River.

Garcia's work could inspire others to learn more about bison and "help create the next generation of advocates,'' Kurzel said.

By the time NWF brought Garcia to Wind River for both the 2016 and 2017 releases, he had already done scores of bison paintings. In addition to creating more of his own work while in Wyoming, the artist led workshops for Native American school children.

Jason Baldes, in charge of the bison project for the Eastern Shoshone, said in an interview that Garcia's paintings capture the animal's power, its connection to Native Americans, and the possibility of healing for both the beast and the people who have been pushed onto reservations.

"And he's such a caring individual,'' Baldes said. Garcia ``wanted to provide young people the opportunity to express their own art.''

Native elders also responded to Garcia. NWF's Kurzel described a Shoshone woman closely observing the painter at work after she gave a traditional blessing at a bison release.

"These two great artists came together,'' Kurzel said. "They were part of illustrating the connections between nature and people.''

Baldes, the son of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who had worked to rebuild the reservation's game populations, said that returning bison to Wind River is for him and other Shoshone "a way to reconnect with an animal that was removed from us as a way to kill us off.''

The animal's meat provided his forefathers food, its hide clothing and shelter, its bones utensils.

"The bison, being a gift from the creator, was essential to our spirituality,'' Baldes added.

Garcia's bison works recall cave paintings of the animals on which prehistoric humans relied, too. Garcia depicts bison and dramatic landscapes in cool blues and grays and sunset browns enlivened with primary colors streaked on the animals' bodies that are reminders that nature offers surprises to those who look closely.

"At first I was a little bit taken aback by'' the modernist bright dashes, Baldes said. "But they grow on you.''

Garcia, meanwhile, was looking forward to visiting Wind River again one day.

On his last visit, the artist said, "it felt like home.''

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Artist explores sometimes surprising connections with nature

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Arturo Garcia rose, bundled up in a puffy green vest and denim blue hoodie, and staked his easel amid the pale golden grasses of Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. It was so windy he had to keep one hand on a canvas the size of a school notebook.

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"The most important things in life are the connections you make with others."
-Tom Ford

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How can you and I connect better with others and the world?

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The hidden truth about human connection | Dan Foxx | TEDxChelmsford

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In this song, Sheeran talks about the connections he had with friends and how the connections are now.

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Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill [Official Lyric Video]

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Connection is to simply be connected and linked to others through multiple avenues.

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con·​nec·​tion | \ kə-ˈnek-shən \

a : causal or logical relation or sequence the connection between two ideas

b(1) : contextual relation or association In this connection the word has a different meaning.

(2) : relationship in fact wanted in connection with a robbery

c : a relation of personal intimacy (as of family ties) Family connections can make getting a job much easier.

d : coherence, continuity … a confused multitude without order or connection.— John Locke

2 a : something that connects : link a loose connection in the wiring

b : a means of communication or transport a telephone connection

3 : a person connected with another especially by marriage, kinship, or common interest has powerful connections

4 : a political, social, professional, or commercial relationship The school has no connection with the museum. : such as

b : an arrangement to execute orders or advance interests of another a firm's foreign connections

c : a source of contraband (such as illegal drugs)

5 : a set of persons associated together: such as

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the act of connecting : the state of being connected: such as; causal or logical relation or sequence; contextual relation or association... See the full definition

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How can talking about our pain help us in the long run?

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"Our only truth is narrative truth, the stories we tell each other and ourselves-the stories we continually recategorize and refine" -Oliver Sacks¹
The use of creative mediums to express human experiences of pain and suffering are ubiquitous throughout history. One such medium-creative writing- and in particular storytelling can be an incredibly useful and healing form of expression for those in pain (physical or mental). Storytelling, as a first-person account of recovery from illness and injury can serve to illustrate not only the lived experience of an individual, but also as a way to inspire hope for others going through similar struggles. Communicating the perspectives of those suffering from chronic pain via stories, can serve to benefit both patients as well as to inform clinicians treating these patients. ²

My personal journey of recovering from pain has included multiple examples of using writing as a creative outlet for coping as well as communication to others regarding my personal experiences. I have written numerous blog posts (See: SapiensMoves & FarmerLeda blogs) about my process of recovery and experiences through my journey of recovery and healing from 3 years of chronic knee pain- including 12 months of being unable to walk due to pain. This year, I also published a book about my journey of healing: ( "Moments From A Year of Healing: A Book of Memories and Essays"). One of the reasons that I wanted to publish this book was to provide a way for clinicians to better understand the day-to-day experience of someone in chronic pain from a patient perspective.

Clinicians can benefit from such storytelling via what has been called "narrative reasoning," in which a patient's perspective can illustrate their lived experience and inform future clinical practice. ² Also, the practice of discussing and writing about "case studies" has been a useful and accepted way to inform clinical practice and advance successful treatment strategies throughout many sectors of medicine: from neurology to oncology and physical therapy practice. 1,3,4

The other main reason that I wanted to chronicle my experiences in my recent book was to serve as an inspiration and way for others struggling from chronic pain to hear an example of healing and recovery. In my book, I do not seek to "sugar coat" the process or struggle, but rather, try to provide a vulnerable look at the lows and also the tremendous highs of ultimately finding successful methods to lead me on a path of healing. I am now pain-free and able to pursue many of the recreational activities that bring me joy including trail running, weightlifting, and yoga.

Patients or those struggling with chronic pain can benefit from writing via the chance to share accounts of their experiences as well as the act of writing itself. Certain clinicians recommend the use of "expressive writing" as a part of a comprehensive treatment strategy for chronic pain. ⁵ Additionally, research has shown that writing about emotional experiences for just 15-30 minutes for 3-5 days can have numerous mental and physical health benefits. ⁶

I encourage you to turn to storytelling, whether you are a patient or clinician, for the myriad of richness it can provide as a method of communicating poignantly about human moments of hardship. I hope that this practice of storytelling improves the way that you relate with others either personally or professionally and that it promotes each of your journeys towards good health!
Leda McDaniel is a Student Physical Therapist and Doctorate Candidate in Ohio Universities' Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.
References:

1. Sacks, O. The River of Consciousness. Knopf; 2017.

2. Courtney CA, O'Hearn MA, Franck CC. Frida Kahlo: Portrait of chronic pain. Physical therapy. 2016;97(1):90-96.

3. Sacks, O. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales. Picador; 1986.

4. Doidge, N. The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from Frontiers of Neuroplasticity. New York: Penguin Books; 2015.

5. Dr. David Hanscom. http://www.backincontrol.com/

6. Pennebaker, JW. Writing about Emotional Experiences as a Therapeutic Process. Psychological Science, 1997; 8, (3) 162-166.

Editor's Note: Leda McDaniel is a Student Physical Therapist and Doctorate Candidate in Ohio Universities' Doctor of Physical Therapy Program and has written a memoir that chronicles her journey of healing after she contracted CRPS following a sports injury.

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The Power of Storytelling: A Human Perspective of Chronic Pain

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"Our only truth is narrative truth, the stories we tell each other and ourselves-the stories we continually recategorize and refine" -Oliver Sacks1 The use of creative mediums to express human experiences of pain and suffering are ubiquitous throughout history.

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"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
-Maya Angelou

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In this song, the artists tell a story of a girl and her life, specifically her love life.

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Brandy You're a Fine Girl by Looking Glass w/ lyrics

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If storytelling brings us together, can it help us to understand one another?

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Tequila McKnight took a deep breath, let out a slow exhale and looked out at the crowd of about 100 people filling every seat in the room at the Hippodrome State Theatre.

McKnight had never shared her story with anyone before, but Monday night she embraced vulnerability.

She recounted her difficult childhood growing up in East Gainesville where she was surrounded by drugs and fights and her experience being incarcerated.

"When you have the prison label on you, no one wants to give you a chance," she said, "but they don't know our stories or where we come from."

McKnight and two other speakers brought their stories to light Monday evening for the second event in the series "Voices of Gainesville: Facing the Facts, Sharing the Stories." The evening's event focused on criminal justice.

The United Church of Gainesville Racial Justice Committee, Self Narrate, Hippodrome Theatre and NAACP are hosting the storytelling series to put a face and voice to the statistics of those most affected by racial disparities in Gainesville. The series focuses on housing and transportation, criminal justice and education.

Brandon Telg, the executive director of Self Narrate, said that through this event they hope to give people a better understanding of what Gainesville looks like in the hopes of moving forward toward a stronger community.

"Storytelling bridges gaps," he said.

Jhody Polk has been sharing her story for about a year. Throughout the seven years she was locked up, Polk was able to discover who she really is, she said.

Polk wants to use her experiences and what she has learned to be a bridge for the community. She said it's important for people to have the opportunity to transform the community with their stories.

"When they locked me up physically, mentally I became free," she said.

Terrance Jackson, the third speaker, was incarcerated when he was 18 for selling drugs, he said.

When he was released, he didn't come home to a clean pair of clothes or money to start a new life. Instead, he struggled to find a job and came to the realization that the consequences of his crime extended well beyond his jail time.

"I'm finding that im still paying a penalty for my incarceration," he said.

At the end, community leaders told their personal stories and the challenges they face in addressing systemic racism.

Stacy Scott, the public defender for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, said she would like to see the community pursue alternatives to incarceration, she said.

"It takes legislators who understand the issues and look at the facts instead of just reacting emotionally to be tough on crime," she said.

Gainesville Police Department Chief Tony Jones said in efforts to change the incarceration rates, people need to vote, volunteer and perfect change on their own streets.

"A pair of handcuffs is not the only solution to a problem," he said.
Contact McKenna Beery at mbeery@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @mckennabeery

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'Storytelling bridges gaps': Three former inmates speak at the Hippodrome

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Tequila McKnight took a deep breath, let out a slow exhale and looked out at the crowd of about 100 people filling every seat in the room at the Hippodrome State Theatre. McKnight had never shared her story with anyone before, but Monday night she embraced vulnerability.

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The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot

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The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot

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Storytelling can be found in multiple ways. In this case, this song was written in remembrance of the Edmund Fitzgerald that sunk in the Great Lakes in the 80's.

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"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" - Gordon Lightfoot (HD w/ Lyrics)

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Storytelling is the action of telling stories to an audience or listener.m

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a teller of stories: such as; a relater of anecdotes; a reciter of tales (as in a children's library)... See the full definition

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"Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself."
-Mohsin Hamid

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Put yourself into someone's shoes.

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How do animals show empathy for humans and their own kin?

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Do animals have emotions? This is a bigger question than it might appear to be. When an animal feels and cares for someone beyond itself, it's more than just a cute story to post on Facebook. It's an insight into the nature of what they really are. Beyond even that, it might just be a glimpse into a redeeming part of our animal side that shows a basic decency that is built into the biology of life.

There are proven records of animals showing empathy. Several, in fact. Sometimes, animals take care of each other. Sometimes, they show outpourings of grief, and sometimes, they even take care of us. However they show it, though, there are several times when animals have shown empathy-and some of them are in ways that are so much like humans that they will shock you.

10 A Chimpanzee Comforted Her Caretaker After A Miscarriage

Central Washington University once took in a chimpanzee named Washoe. They taught Washoe sign language and tried to raise her as much as possible like a human being to see how well the monkey could communicate. The experiment was a rousing success. Washoe was able to communicate and even form full, grammatically correct sentences. The most amazing breakthrough, though, came completely by chance.

One of Washoe's caretakers, a woman named Kat, was pregnant and miscarried. Distraught, she took a few weeks off of work to get through her pain before coming back. Washoe, who didn't understand the concept of paid leave, took this as a personal offense and refused to look at Kat when she returned.

To make Washoe happy, Kat signed that she was sorry and then explained, "My baby died." According to the people present, Washoe just stared at her in silence for a long while. Then the chimpanzee signed the word "cry" and ran her finger down Kat's cheek, mimicking a tear.

Later, when Kat's shift ended and she went to leave, Washoe stopped her, signing, "Please, person-hug?"

The chimpanzee, who had lost children herself, was so sympathetic to her caretaker's pain that she wouldn't let her go home without sharing a comforting embrace.

9 Elephants Gathered To Mourn A Conservationist's Death

Conservationist Lawrence Anthony developed a reputation as " the elephant whisperer." He had the ability to calm down African elephants. He worked in the Thula Thula Reserve, where he spent his time trying to calm down elephants that were unhappy about having been relocated there. The elephants wanted to leave, but he managed to keep them in place, knowing that they would be killed if they left the protected area.

Years later, Anthony died of a heart attack. He had not been in the reserve or seen the elephants for 1.5 years when it happened. The elephants, somehow sensing that Anthony had passed, left the reserve and traveled for 12 hours to his home to pay their respects. Just as an elephant will mourn the dead of its own species, they came out for Anthony.

In total, two full herds of elephants came in a procession to his home, with each one coming separately. This massive group of gigantic elephants waited on Anthony's property for two days to mourn his death before they headed back home.

8 Dogs Instinctively Comfort Crying Humans

If you've ever felt like your dog really cares about your feelings, you might actually be right.

An animal behavior study was recently conducted to see how dogs would react to emotional displays. The scientists took an experiment that was first conducted on babies and decided to see how dogs would react to strangers.

Each dog was put in a room with its owner and a stranger. Naturally, the dog would gravitate toward the owner at first. The stranger would then try to get the dog's attention by talking to it or by humming to it, and the scientists wrote down how the dog reacted.

When a stranger pretended to cry, though, the dogs really reacted. When the dogs thought that the stranger was upset, they would leave their owners, nuzzle the crying stranger, and lick his face. Even if they didn't know who the person was, they would go over and help him if he seemed upset.

The people who did the study admit that it's entirely possible that the dogs were doing this because domesticated animals have been conditioned to expect rewards for compassion. However, dogs get rewards for a lot of different responses-and of everything the researchers tried, the dogs responded to sadness the most.

7 Chimpanzee Mother And Sister Took Care Of A Baby With Down's Syndrome

We often think of nature as a cruel and unforgiving place-a kill-or-be-killed world where only the strongest survive. Evolution seems to suggest that the weak get cut off by the strong and left to die and that our own tendency to protect the elderly and the ill might be some kind of anomaly in nature. But it seems like that's not always exactly true.

Japanese researchers working in Tanzania spotted something that they'd never seen before. A chimpanzee was taking care of a baby chimp which they described as suffering from " symptoms resembling Down's syndrome." The baby held its mouth open like a fish, could barely support itself, and seemed to suffer from a mental handicap.

The mother took care of her anyway, carrying her everywhere because she would fall down without her mother's help. The mother would also raise the child to her breast to let it feed. Even more interestingly, the chimp's sister helped with the baby's care when the mother needed to eat.

The sister had a major part in the child's upbringing, so much so that they relied on her. Just like a human, the chimpanzee mother needed help to take care of her baby. When the older sister became pregnant herself and couldn't help anymore, the handicapped baby died.

6 Rats Protect Each Other And Share Food

Rats have a bad reputation. When somebody betrays us or steals from us, we even call them "a rat," suggesting that anyone who takes for themselves at the expense of others is just as bad as these lowly vermin. Except that, according to one study, they're actually a lot more sympathetic than we give them credit for.

A group of scientists set up some lab rats in an experiment. If a rat pulled a lever, two things would happen: The rat would be rewarded with chocolate, but another rat would be drowned. The rewarded rat had to watch the water level rise on another rat in another cage and deal with a tough choice: Is it worth drowning a stranger if you get a Hershey's bar out of the deal?

The answer was no. Most of the rats wouldn't pull the lever if they knew that it would cause another rat to suffer. Interestingly, if a rat had gone through the near-drowning experience before being given the test, they were even more likely to protect the other rats. These rats learned from a bad experience and wanted to keep others from suffering the same fate.

5 A Pride Of Lions Saved A Girl In Ethiopia

In 2005, a 12-year-old girl near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was dragged out into the wild and beaten bloody by seven men. Apparently, this was supposed to convince her to marry one of them-which seems like a weird method but is shockingly common there. According to the United Nations, 70 percent of marriages in that area start with a young girl being abducted, dragged out into the middle of nowhere, raped, and then forced to marry someone.

All that would have happened to this girl, too, if it wasn't for a group of lions. When the girl started crying, a nearby pride of lions heard her and rushed to her rescue. The animals pounced on the men and chased them away, saving her before she could be raped and forced into a life of servitude.

That's not all, though. If they'd just attacked the men, it could easily have just been a random lion attack. But they stayed with the girl. The lions waited with the bruised child for about 12 hours-protecting her in case the men came back-until her family found her. And when they did, the lions walked back into the jungle, leaving her safe.

4 Koko Cried For Her Pet Cat

Koko is a smart gorilla. Her IQ has been listed as somewhere between 70 and 95, which means that she's probably smarter than a few human beings you know. She has a vocabulary of about 2,000 sign language words and has been able to communicate with researchers in an incredibly humanlike way.

When her caretakers noticed that all of Koko's favorite stories were about cats, they decided to get her a pet kitten. Koko named the tailless cat "All Ball" and adored it. She was allowed to play with the cat for one hour each day. Koko would play catch with the kitten and even tried to nurse it.

One day, however, All Ball sneaked out of the compound and onto the highway, where she was hit by a car. When the researchers told Koko, she reportedly refused to respond in any way for a full 10 minutes. Then the gorilla started openly weeping or, more accurately, whimpering-which is the gorilla's way of crying.

Koko finally eulogized her pet, signing the words, "Sleep, cat."

3 Prairie Voles Console One Another When They Are Stressed

Prairie voles are sweethearts that mate for life. When a prairie vole finds that special vole that it wants to spend its life with, he stays with her and both parents take responsibility for the kids together. As it turns out, that involves taking care of each other emotionally, too.

Some scientists did a study in which they made a control group of voles watch while an experimental group of voles was shocked with electricity. When the two groups were allowed to reunite, the researchers found that the voles that hadn't been shocked would console the hurt ones by licking them.

The voles only seemed to console other voles that they knew, and they definitely licked more when they knew one had been hurt. All of which told the researchers that this wasn't just grooming. This was taking care of them.

The scientists went a step further, too, and blocked the voles' oxytocin receptors, which are believed to be responsible for empathy in humans. When they did the experiment again with empathy blocked, the voles stopped taking care of each other. This means that there was a real chemical reaction happening inside their bodies that was making them take care of one another.

2 Magpies Brought Grass For A Dead Friend

Dr. Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado tells an interesting story about a group of magpies. While riding his bicycle around Boulder, Colorado, he saw a dead magpie lying on the road who had clearly been hit by a car. Five other magpies were gathered around it, looking at it.

First, one of the magpies pecked at the dead body, as if nudging it to see if it would move. According to Bekoff, this was similar to how an elephant shows sympathy for a dead friend, although there is no way to know for sure what the gesture meant.

The next part, though, seems eerily meaningful. One magpie flew off, took some grass, and laid it down by the dead body as if it were an offering. Then another flew away and did the same, taking some grass and putting it down by its side. The five magpies stood in silence for a few moments and then flew away one by one.

It's possible to debate what the act meant, but Bekoff is convinced that it was a display of empathetic grief, built into the species to keep them united. And as crazy as Bekoff's story sounds, at least one other person has caught the ritual on tape as shown in the video above.

1 Macaques Refuse Food If Others Get Hurt

Another experiment was done on macaques. The macaques were given a chain and taught that they would be fed if they pulled the chain. The catch, however, was that every time they pulled the chain, another macaque would be shocked. It was an experiment similar to the one done on mice but a little bit crueler-because if the macaques didn't pull the chain, they weren't fed at all.

Even though it meant risking starvation, 87 percent of the macaques refused to pull the chain if they knew that it would hurt another macaque. In one case, a macaque went a full two weeks without eating rather than deal with the guilt of hurting another animal.

It's pretty impressive but even more significant when you compare that to another study. Because another group of scientists did a similar experiment on a different animal-humans. They paid people to pull a lever that they claimed would shock another person with electricity. That other person was an actor who pretended to be in incredible pain every time they pulled the lever.

In the experiment with humans, a full 87 percent of the people pulled the lever all the way to a space marked "Danger! Severe Shock!" even while hearing their victim scream in pain. It was all to get a few dollars that they could have easily earned by getting a job at McDonald's.

Mark Oliver contributes to a number of sites, including Cracked, The Onion's StarWipe and Listverse. His website is regularly updated with everything he writes.

Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. His writing also appears on a number of other sites, including The Onion's StarWipe and Cracked.com. His website is regularly updated with everything he writes.

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10 Amazing Displays Of Animal Empathy - Listverse

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Do animals have emotions? This is a bigger question than it might appear to be. When an animal feels and cares for someone beyond itself, it's more than just a cute story to post on Facebook. It's an insight into the nature of what they really are.

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What is empathy and how do humans achieve it?

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Some folks are able to watch the latest racist incident or school shooting unfold on the news late at night, roll over and go right to sleep. Yet, plenty of others can't watch the news past dinnertime, for the pain and agony they witness seeps too deeply into their skin and all hope for sleep is lost.

The cause for taking the suffering of others so personally? The blessing and curse of empathy.

According to Dictionary.com, "empathy" is described as "the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another." Roman Krznaric, author of " Empathy: Why it Matters and How to Get It," describes the difference between empathy and sympathy: "Sympathy is feeling pity or sorry for someone, but without that extra step of grasping what that person is going through, or how they are experiencing the world," he says.

Being an 'empath' versus being empathetic

There's also a difference between feeling empathy for others and being an actual "empath." Judith Orloff, MD, author of " The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People," identifies as an empath and describes them as "emotional sponges who are so sensitive, they tend to take on the stress of the world."

The gift of feeling empathy, or being an empath, is that you care deeply for others and want to help, says Orloff. However, the downside of empathy is it can be mighty exhausting. "Empaths have an extremely sensitive, hyperreactive neurological system," she explains. "We don't have the same filters that other people do to block out stimulation. As a consequence, we absorb into our own bodies both the positive and stressful energies around us."

Is empathy a skill or an ability you're born with?

Orloff says the ability to feel empathy is a little bit psychological tendency and a little bit neurological wiring. "It's hypothesized that empaths may have hyperactive mirror neuron systems (the compassion neurons in the brain) and they work on overdrive feeling compassion," she says.

According to Krznaric, your capacity for empathy is likely a question of nature and nurture. "Research suggests that about 50 percent of our empathic capacities are genetically inherited and the rest we can learn, because empathy is not simply a matter of wiring," he explains, adding that adversity can also lend itself to the development of an empathetic nature. "I recently met a stand-up comic who has lived with cerebral palsy all her life. She has an amazing empathy with people who not only have physical disabilities, but who get marginalized by society in other ways," he says.

Orloff also mentioned how adversity contributes to an empathetic nature: "A portion of empaths I've treated have experienced early trauma such as emotional or physical abuse, or they were raised by alcoholic, depressed or narcissistic parents, potentially wearing down the usual healthy defenses that a child with nurturing parents develops."

Empathy can be a struggle in this society

David Sauvage, an empath performance artist who consults with corporations and entrepreneurs on building more empathetic cultures, says the basis of empathy is emotional self-awareness - which isn't a skill fostered by today's achievement-driven culture.

"The average person in our culture doesn't have much empathy toward others because we prioritize everything other than emotional well-being," he explains. "How often are boys told to 'suck it up?' How often are girls told they're 'acting crazy?' How many times during the course of the day do we feel like we shouldn't feel a certain way, so we hide our sadness only to feel shame around that sadness? There's no healthy balance between the negation of people's feelings and the acceptance of people's feelings. The only way to cope is to disassociate," explains Sauvage.

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What is empathy and how do you cultivate it?

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Our brains may be wired to empathize more with people who look like us, but being more empathetic starts with just listening.

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The action of empathy is to feel and understand for one who is going through feelings or emotions.

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Did you know?

Sympathy and empathy both refer to a caring response to the emotional state of another person, but a distinction between them is typically made: while sympathy is a feeling of sincere concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult or painful, empathy involves actively sharing in the emotional experience of the other person.

Sympathy has been in use since the 16th century, and its greater age is reflected in its wider breadth of meanings, including "a feeling of loyalty" and "unity or harmony in action or effect." It comes ultimately from the Greek sympathēs, meaning "having common feelings, sympathetic," which was formed from syn- ("with, together with") and páthos, "experience, misfortune, emotion, condition." Empathy was modeled on sympathy; it was coined in the early 20th century as a translation of the German Einfühlung ("feeling-in" or "feeling into"). First applied in contexts of philosophy, aesthetics, and psychology, empathy continues to have technical use in those fields that sympathy does not.

Did you know?

Compassion and empathy both refer to a caring response to someone else's distress. While empathy refers to an active sharing in the emotional experience of the other person, compassion adds to that emotional experience a desire to alleviate the person's distress.

... the story of Nellie Bly, the first female investigative reporter, who not only demanded justice from powerful institutions, but also insisted on dignity and compassion for the most vulnerable citizens. - The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Aug. 2022

Blonde clearly wants us to feel for Norma Jeane, but it dwells on her pain so obsessively ... that the movie's empathy feels like another form of exploitation. - Justin Chang, NPR, 23 Sept. 2022

The distinction between compassion and empathy is frequently a topic of exploration.

By empathy I mean feeling the feelings of other people. So if you're in pain and I feel your pain-I am feeling empathy toward you. If you're being anxious, I pick up your anxiety. If you're sad and I pick up your sadness, I'm being empathetic. And that's different from compassion. Compassion means I give your concern weight, I value it. I care about you, but I don't necessarily pick up your feelings. ... [I]f I feel compassion for you, I'll be invigorated. I'll be happy and I'll try to make your life better. - Paul Bloom, quoted in Vox, 16 Jan. 2019

Compassion is a much older word; it's been part of the language since the 14th century, and comes ultimately from Latin com- and pati, meaning "to bear, suffer." Empathy is a 20th century coinage modeled on sympathy as a translation of the German Einfühlung ("feeling-in" or "feeling into"). It was first applied in contexts of philosophy, aesthetics, and psychology and continues to have technical use in those fields.

Example Sentences

He felt great His months spent researching prison life gave him greater empathy with the poor. empathy towards convicts.

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'empathy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Greek empatheia, literally, passion, from empathēs emotional, from em- + pathos feelings, emotion - more at pathos

1909, in the meaning defined at sense 2

The first known use of empathy was in 1909

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the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit... See the full definition