compassion

Saturday At The Movies

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A Norwegian children’s charity left a thinly-dressed 11-year-old boy shivering at a bus stop in the winter cold to test how many people would spontaneously help him.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/L9O8j9QPZc8]

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The advert is part of a new fund-raising campaign SOS Barnebyer is launching to provide blankets and shelter to displaced children in Syria. The organization said the boy had volunteered for the role and had not been harmed by the cold.
“He’s an engaged 11-year-old boy, and his family are already sponsors of SOS Barnebyer,” she said. “The family have a big heart and they really wanted to contribute. He got a small salary for the job that he did for us, but he wanted to do it because of the situation for the children in Syria.”

This Is Water: Thoughts On Living A Compassionate Life

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It’s TED Talk Tuesday on 350orbust, but I’m breaking with tradition and posting a non-TED talk. It’s an excerpt of a longer commencement address given at  Kenyon College in 2005 by the late American novelist David Foster Wallace. When I came across the video, nine days after it was posted on YouTube, it already had over four and a half million views; I decided I needed to share it here. The link to the full talk, and the book by the same name, is below the video.

*update May 28, 2013 – I guess somebody was unhappy, and the video I originally  shared was pulled for copyright infringement. Too bad.  I’ve found another version of the talk, broken up into part 1 & 2 (without the great visuals of the one I first posted).

[youtube=http://youtu.be/M5THXa_H_N8]

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/uSAzbSQqals]

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Brainpickings.org: This Is Water: David Foster Wallace on Life

The Golden Rule: A Way To Ensure A Viable Future?

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Karen Armstrong, former nun and prolific author on religious issues, gives a talk in 2008 on fostering compassion for today’s TED Talk Tuesday.

“If we don’t manage to implement the Golden Rule globally, so that we treat all peoples, wherever and whoever they may be, as though they were as important as ourselves, I doubt that we’ll have a viable world to hand on to the next generation.”

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SJMm4RAwVLo]

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CharterForCompassion.org

*LOL – not sure what happened, but I’ve now posted the video that goes along with the Karen Armstrong quote. It’s hard to get good help these days!*