How do you see the random people you encounter each day?

Do you notice them, or not?

If you do notice them, does anything pass through your mind about them? Is it a good thought, or a not-so-good thought?

What if you are in the grocery store and you see or hear a young child throwing a temper tantrum, while the mom is attempting to shop for her family? Do you look with compassion upon her and the child? Or do you judge both of them and assume the child must be a spoiled brat, and she must be an awful mother?

This is just one example of common encounters we have all had. But the possibilities are endless. It is so easy to catch a sliver of someone’s existence and fill in the blanks, based on our own previous experiences. But how fair is that? Think about someone seeing you in a not-so-perfect moment. Would you want them to apply the same criteria to you that you apply to others?

Everyone you encounter in every situation has a storyline going on in their lives beneath their outward appearance, that you know nothing about.

And it is easy to judge what we do not understand.

This is especially true for people we would easily dismiss, such as someone who supports a different political party than we do, or someone with different religious beliefs from ours. To a great degree, our character will match our political and religious beliefs, and those in whom we put our confidence. But we are so much more than our politics and religion, too.

One thing we can ask ourselves in considering those with different ideologies is “I wonder why.” What might have happened in this person’s life, or be going on in this person’s life now that they support this particular party’s platform? What or who does this person fear, that they would support their party’s platform? We might never get a clear answer, but at least we can begin to look at each other as something other than an enemy, and maybe even as another flesh-and-blood human being, with worries and burdens just like us.

In any case, I believe empathy for others should be a guiding principle in our beliefs. No one is an island. Whatever happens to one person impacts everyone else, whether we realize it or not.

Sometimes, to understand what empathy is, we need to visualize it.

And the Cleveland Clinic has masterfully accomplished this in a video called “If we could see inside others’ hearts.”

In less than five minutes, we see assorted patients, staff members and visitors moving through a medical facility. There is no dialogue; just background music and a few words next to each person, indicating what is going on in that person’s life. Some of them are having crises; others are getting good news. Some of it has to do with what is going on in the clinic; some of it has to do with what is going on in their lives outside the clinic.

But just by looking at them, without the words next to their images, you wouldn’t have a clue about any of their backstories.

The video was filmed in a contained environment, but the bigger point is these scenarios play out every day and in every place you go: at home, in school, in the office, at church, in the park, etc.

It is all too easy to get stuck in our heads and be so preoccupied with our own concerns that we don’t see the suffering or the good things happening in the people around us.

On the other hand, some of us are so afraid of acknowledging the darker shades in our own lives that we spend all our time looking outside ourselves for someone or something to judge and/or gossip about.

This video from the Cleveland Clinic has been around for many years; every once in a while, I remember it and watch it as a reminder for myself. We humans are like that, constantly needing reminders of what it means to be kind.

I have a retired teacher friend who told me one time she showed the video to her high school students every semester. I love the idea of other teachers following her lead. If we ever hope to rediscover what it means to be a generally decent and empathic society, we need to model these qualities every chance we get.

Not just to our young people, but to all people.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.