“You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself

John Steinbeck

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By the time I was 13 years old, I had read almost all of Steinbeck’s novels. The message from the quote above was a central theme in almost all of them. That theme is “Empathy”. Steinbeck wrote at such a personal level that his characters quickly became endeared friends. I can still remember how emotional I got about Lennie from “Of Mice & Men”. He deserved better than he got.

I don’t know if I became an empath because of all his books, or if they just brought it out of me. Either way, I’m glad it happened.