The Book of Joy

those and try as much as we can to enter into who we are: people of
compassion.
“What can you do to help change that situation? You might not be
able to do a great deal, but start where you are and do what you can where
you are. And yes, be appalled. It would be awful if we looked on all of
that horrendousness and we said, Ah, it doesn’t really matter. It’s so
wonderful that we can be distressed. That’s part of the greatness of who
we are—that you are distressed about someone who is not family in any
conventional way. And yet you feel distressed, equally. It’s incredible
just how compassionate and generous people can be.
“When a disaster such as 9/11 happens, we realize we are family. We
are family. Those people in the Twin Towers are our sisters and brothers.
And even more startlingly, the people who were piloting those planes,
they are our sisters and brothers. You have a tsunami happen, and have
you seen the outpouring of love and compassion and caring? I mean, you
don’t know the victims from a brass farthing. And people just gave and
gave. Because that’s actually who we really are.
“After 9/11 you would have expected that those who hated America
would have been gloating. But there were very, very, very few people
gloating. People were deeply, deeply distressed.
“Had the American president not hit back, we might have had a
different world. We will have a different world of course, eventually. But
just look at any tragedy. When miners are trapped in Russia, people don’t
say, I can’t speak Russian, or, I don’t even know where that place is on
the map. There is a compassion that just springs up.”
The Archbishop’s and the Dalai Lama’s conviction that we would
have a different world, eventually, was striking. Several months after the
interviews I was visiting with the Archbishop in South Africa when
terrorist attacks took place in Paris. So many people were despairing at
humanity’s obvious inhumanity. When I asked him what he would say to
those who were caught in such despair, he replied, “Yes, we do have
setbacks, but you must keep everything in perspective. The world is
getting better. Think about the rights of women or how slavery was
considered morally justified a few hundred years ago. It takes time. We