Empathy vs Sympathy

Connection - isn't that why we write? To connect the dots in our miniscule galaxies and hope that the shapes we discern--sprinkles of light--mean something to somebody else. A lottery. A crap shoot. (How often do the words make it past our solitary screen?)

That first faltering draft so necessary, telling ourselves at least part of the story. Sympathizing with our softer selves, easily misconstrued as self-indulgence.

The trick is in firing up the rocket, blasting ourselves beyond our comfort zones into the Other (hostile? hungry? quake-ravaged? ) Territory of Someone Else.

Think of it, though: zero gravity. Floating from predictable boundaries. The outer limits. A cup of coffee spilling to the ceiling.

By the power of the imagination, being outside the box.