Liz, who is a Druid, sent the following:

 

Empathy is hard. Empathy is an awesome power to have; it allows the wielder to harm as easily as to heal, to make peace as easily as to make war. Understandably, people sometimes shy away from either offering it or receiving it, but there is no other way for us to be in community with each other; the only alternative is nihilism. The book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, which centers around child soldier Ender and his siblings, Valentine and Peter, in a future where humans are at war with aliens known as the Buggers, explores these dynamics of empathy throughout, best exemplified by this passage:

“‘I’m very good at that. Understanding how other people think.’

‘The curse of the Wiggin children,” she joked, but it frightened her, that Ender might understand her as completely as he did his enemies. Peter always understood her, or at least thought he did, but he was such a moral sinkhole that she never had to feel embarrassed when he guessed even her worst thoughts. But Ender-- she did not want him to understand her. It would make her naked before him. She would be ashamed. “You don’t think you can beat the buggers unless you know them.’

‘It goes deeper than that. Being alone here with nothing to do, I’ve been thinking about myself, too. Trying to understand why I hate myself so badly.’

‘No, Ender.’

‘Don’t tell me “No Ender.” It took me a long time to realize that I did, but believe me, I did. Do. And it came down to this: In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them—'

“You beat them.” For a moment she was not afraid of his understanding.

‘No, you don’t understand. I *destroy* them. I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don’t *exist*.’

‘Of course you don’t.’ The fear came again, worse than before. Peter has mellowed, but you, they’ve made you into a killer. Two sides of the same coin, but which side is which?”

Ender is subsequently manipulated into genociding the Buggers, but once free from that manipulation, he turns his efforts to sharing the story of the former enemy he destroyed:

“It was written as the hive queen spoke, telling all they had meant to do, and all that they had done. Here are our failures, and here is our greatness; we did not mean to hurt you, and we forgive you for our death. From their earliest awareness to the great wars that swept across their home world, Ender told the story quickly, as if it were an ancient memory. When he came to the tale of the great mother, the queen of all, who first learned to keep and teach the new queen instead of killing her or driving her away, then he lingered, telling how many times she had finally to destroy the child of her body, the new self that was not herself, until she bore one who understood her quest for harmony. This was a new thing in the world, two queens who loved and helped each other instead of battling, and together they were stronger than any other hive. They prospered; they had more daughters who joined them in peace; it was the beginning of wisdom.”