As someone who has studied Psychology and Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University, I am engrossed in the underpinnings of society and various manufactured bubbles we refer to as communities. And deeper, in that, how humanity is lost even amongst those who truly believe in humanity.
There is a woman I met in the spring of 2026. She is an empathetic person, an extremely empathetic person. At times it is excruciatingly difficult for me to listen to her beautiful voice and not think that her empathy is to her detriment. Her empathy is her strength. It is not an understatement for me to say, I will not be writing this today, if it was not for the chance encounter and honour of meeting her. Now it feels as though it was and is more than chance. She is deeply, to her core, an Empath. A rare quality to genuinely see in someone.
Our society has created bubbles within the areas we live, that excludes undesirable people and undesirable qualities within people. Empathy is increasingly becoming one of those undesirable qualities. It shows up in policy making and in everyday workplaces.
A simple example is access to water. Something I did not see until she showed me. She showed me how many spaces that the rest of us take for granted that have water bottle refilling stations are not friendly nor accessible to people who look and smell homeless. Many people in restaurants show hostility to those who look and smell homeless. For the rest of us who do not experience this hostility, we do not see it. Water is a problem of the developing world, not a Canadian problem, it is not a Waterloo Region problem, it is not in our backyard. She showed me, that the water crisis we donate money to everyday is indeed a local problem.
She showed me how our lack of empathy has created a water crisis for our friends and classmates that we played with as children. Those same friends and classmates that made us laugh, when the teacher was being too strict. Those same friends and classmates who made us happy, who gave us strength who made us who we are today, we now abandon and we refuse them access to WATER.
Most of us already know in the back of our mind that many of the organizations we donate to are merely selling us a product instead of committing to the good deeds that they place in their brochures. We buy the feeling of doing good. Those who are doing good are those at St. John’s Kitchen, who are handing out water bottles and feeding our family members who are in pain.
We are at the final examples I want to highlight. We went out to eat, nothing fancy, just fast food. Asking for tap water to avoid using a plastic bottle was challenging. The simplicity of the request and the conversation required to obtain tap water blew my mind. I will forever, be traumatized. At another restaurant she was charged for tap water.
The amount of work it takes to get water is immense. In another timeline, for suggesting, adding a water refilling station to my place of employment would have justified a meagre, thousand dollar bump to my end of year bonus. And for those outside of our privileged community, they have to stand and beg for money, so they can stand and beg to buy tap water. Never have I ever.
The moral of this story is not to fake it until you make it. It is common sense. The lack of common sense. Our gross ability to deny WATER to those in need.
Before she showed me these things, she told me stories of the depravity people experience. People being so deprived that they resort to drinking WATER directly from Victoria Park Lake. Drinking WATER from storm water management areas. Drinking water from places we would not allow our DOGS to drink from. It was hard to believe it, until I saw and experienced it. I experienced the best of it. I could not stand in the shoes of those who experience the average of it, let alone the worst of it. Now that pain of knowing how my peers from elementary school, summer camp, and high-school have been living, haunt me. I hope it haunts you to action.
