It is important to occasionally practice empathy with strangers who rush past us on the streets of our lives. It helps us reconcile ourselves with life and work, and develop a sense of brotherhood.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 03/06/2025
The other day, on my way to work, I was looking at the many cars and trucks traveling like me on the Autostrada del Sole. And I was thinking about what moves them, what moves us, what moves the world every morning, every hour, every minute. The common narrative says that the spring that drives us all forward, the “law of gravity” that makes us move, is simply self-interest. We go to work, go shopping, go on vacation, go out, to maximize our usefulness, for our own pleasure. That's what we're taught in school, that's what many of us think.
Then we look closer, at ourselves and others, and we notice something different. First of all, we see that we have been going to work every morning for many years for many reasons, not just for money. Of course, we work for a salary, but we also work because we have made commitments to others, because it is our duty, and because, sometimes, we enjoy working. Salaries and wages or profits (if we are entrepreneurs) are still very important, and when we think we are paid little and poorly, the other non-monetary motivations for working also come into crisis, become clouded, sometimes disappear or break down. That salary, then, is not only or mainly an individual matter: it often allows our children and/or those we love to grow, study, and dream.
Let's continue driving and thinking, and for a moment let's step into a truck driver's cab and, with our imagination, into his soul. Let's imagine a wife, a partner, maybe children, waiting for that hard-earned salary to live on, to live better. And then let's peek for a moment through the window of the car overtaking us in the next lane, and we begin to see at the end of their journey the house of a friend waiting for them, a friend's funeral to honor, a visit to a sick person, a check-up at a hospital, a boyfriend or parent to catch up with, a weekend vacation to find a moment of peace and distract a husband who is going through very difficult months with his brothers and with life.
So, as we watch, think and imagine, the initial idea we had when we set off becomes more complicated, richer and very different. And that initial assumption that the world is driven by interests, business and money begins to become more complicated and evolve, until it is transformed into its opposite. We see a lot of humanity inside those cabins, friendship running along the roads, much more beauty than we imagined. We even venture to put forward a strong thesis in the form of a question: what if it were love that moved the world, every morning, today, tomorrow, always?
It is important to do these exercises in empathy with strangers who run alongside us on the roads of our lives from time to time. They help us reconcile ourselves with life and work, and develop that sense of brotherhood that is essential for nurturing and maintaining the network of reciprocity that underpins civil society and the market. And then, every now and then, try to thank those who work alongside us and for us, even without knowing it. This gives rise to mutual smiles of civility, which we sorely need in these difficult and pessimistic times.
Photo credit: © Giuliano Dinon / MSA Archive
