On a sidenote, I think I got plenty of empathy. I just don't act upon it. Most people have shit for empathy - it's just that when they are struck by it, they react. My dad will run across the street, karate-kick people through the air, to get first to the mother with the baby trolley, trying to get up on the bus.
On a xmas morning, my uncle on the mothers side got up. A fairly conservative man, but with a wild and loud sense of humor, the prankster of the family, one time throwing oranges up in the air, and onto himself, to my aunts great dismay, purely for having been funny doing a failed juggle. But, he is a man of seriousness also, and a Norwegian - meaning, he will not get involved with the common folk, unless he is told by police or a superior to do so. He is chief of the city fire department.
As he was brushing his teeth, readying for work, the doorbell rang. Allready he became nervous, who could be calling so early, on xmas morning? A black guy. Black as coal. Who begun to speak in very broken, heavily african accented norwegian. As my uncle was composing himself, struggling to focus, he was being explained that this guy was trying to deliver newspapers, but his car had slid off the driveway, and onto the now frozen football field, and was stuck in the snow. My uncle was still completely freaked out by having a black african savage only inches from his face, and told him no-can-do, slammed shut, hurried inside, to calm down and wonder what to do next. As he looked out the window, he saw this guy wading in the snow, doing futile pushes and nudges against his car. Now, of course, he saw the struggle, not the blackness, just some guy, he begun to think of the words, delivering newspapers. Humanity struck him. Instant regret also! He pulled his jacket on, ran outside, took his own car, told the guy to hop the fuck on, and cruised the entire neighborhood with him, delivering newspapers.
He then swung by the "student city", picked up half his tribe, and drove them all to the university (on xmas morning, mind you.). He then drove back, and finished brushing his teeth, but now feeling like super, bat and spider man at once. And the black dude didn't get fired on xmas eve, and even got to read up some more on his studies, before hurrying off to drive his bus (which they often do here. Thank God they switched to recorded readings of the next stops... )
