John R. Miles

Now back to my conversation with Joshua Green and Rick Hansen.

I want to go back to you, Rick, and talk about compassion for a second.

I know growing up and then serving in the military, I was kind of brought up to believe that compassion is soft.

But science, I think, is showing that it actually results in strength and resilience.

So I was hoping you could go into that.

And then what do we do with compassion for my group and how it feels in conflict with compassion for all of us?

And how do we bridge that gap?

So, Josh, I want to touch on compassion fatigue for a second, because I think it's very real right now, especially when so many people are exhausted by conflict, uncertainty, AI, everything that's going on.

How do we stay compassionate when all of that is going on with us?

And what role does curiosity play in helping us dissolve fear and building trust?

I just finished rereading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

And it's a book that I tend to take out every so many years as a reminder.

And the discussion here reminded me of something I read in the afterword of the book.

And a person asked Frankl, you know, why do you write your books in German, the language of Hitler?

And he said back to him, do you have any knives in your kitchen?

Why do you use a knife when you eat when it has caused so much harm to so many people?

And I think it's a valuable point.

But the other thing is, as I was reading the book, and I'm gonna tie this in, is Frankl talks about meaning and says that there are really three ways that people can find it.

And says one of those is through work.

Another one of those is through proximity of love.