Consideration

Consideration is a symptom of a compassionate nature. The urban landscape provides ample examples of lack of consideration. Cars blast their music. People scream into their phones while standing right next to others on the subway. Drivers swerve into lanes willy-nilly without turn signals. So where is the compassion?

 

The compassionate person is often hard to see, but paying attention provides plenty of encouragement, even in the rougher quarters of urban America. Acknowledging consideration on the street is considerate. This is the currency of compassion. A small wave to the driver who carefully stops short of the crosswalk. A quiet "thank you" to the person who holds the door open. A smiling "good job" to the bagger in the supermarket who doesn't crush your bread at the bottom of your grocery bag.

 

The rapper-video-game culture of the past two decades in the U.S. has demonized being "nice". There is more to being considerate than just being nice. Consideration implies thought or deliberation. Being truly considerate implies a thoughtful human connection, not just a fake smile to avoid conflict. Fatuous insincerity is never considerate.

 

As a practice, I consider the behaviors of other human beings in my environment. From those behaviors, I try to consider the life state of some of those people in an effort to interact with them compassionately. Reflex is never considerate. Animals in survival mode do not consider the life condition of their prey. They simply react and act instinctively to satisfy their needs for survival. My practice entails moving from reflexes to considered behaviors in myself. This requires emotional development, education and health maintenance.

 

Developing the habit of consideration before action or speech is extremely helpful in developing a compassionate nature. Consideration allows time for hearing and understanding others. Consideration prevents me from being all about me. This does not always cause me to like other people but it certainly does educate me about the many different life conditions around me. I can then determine how best to exercise my humanist values realistically in my environment.