Considering the value of compassion

Major Lynne Shaw explores how gratitude can remind us to value others.

Have you ever thought about all the processes involved in you being able to read something online or in print? WordPress, Reddit and Substack are all examples of digital spaces where people are able to write for others to read and share their opinions, learning and lives. For that to happen, we need manufacturers of tablets, smartphones and laptops. We need providers of electricity, people who build transport that gets people to work, people who staff supermarkets that stock the food we need to live, people who provide sanitation and clean water… The list goes on!

Every single one of those people has played a part in you being able to have the option of reading somebody else’s words across the internet. Even for you to read this article, so much has gone on behind the scenes just to make it possible.

It’s easy to take all this for granted, but when we start paying attention to all the people who are involved in making sure we can do certain things, it can prompt us to a new and fresh sense of gratitude.

Perhaps you prefer to think about the wrapped, sliced loaf of bread that forms your sandwiches or toast. How many people have been involved in making that possible? The people who grow the wheat and other ingredients, the people who mill the flour, the people who make the machinery to mill the flour, the people who maintain the machinery, the people who make and print the wrappers, and so on.

When you pay attention to how many people you probably take for granted every day, it brings you up short. Once you become more aware of what everything is truly worth, it can grow your gratitude into compassion – valuing the contribution of others, seeing beyond what’s in front of you to all the people who helped it get there.

I have been taking others for granted, all the work that they have done so that I can have a loaf of bread, so that I can have a smartphone in my hand. The people who make it possible for me to read other people’s words or see family photographs from across half the globe.

When I practise gratitude, however, suddenly I feel connected to these people and my God-given instinct is to feel compassion for them. It’s impossible to imagine every single person’s life or whether I can do anything for each of them, but I do need to have a change of attitude within myself. It’s not gratitude about whether I’ve got less or more than anyone else, but gratitude that leads me to look after my stuff, the planet and other people, to be grateful for all that I have right now.

This gratitude-led compassion prompts me to be more mindful of the person at the till ringing up all my purchases, or of the person who’s just delivered something to my door. My profound gratitude reminds me to feel for others and show them love and grace. It’s a humbling – not humiliating – process to remember that my life owes so much to so many.

It causes me to ask two questions: What am I giving back? And how can I honour and support other people better?

Compassion in action, as a fruit of gratitude, leads me to be a better steward, to be more aware of how my choices affect others, and to do better at treating everyone I meet as valuable.