The other day, I was practicing the piano and stopped to reflect on what I had played. At the same time, I looked out the window and watched a middle-aged woman, Nancy, walking an obviously older companion, a dog, Sage, who was walking ahead of Nancy at a much slower gait than what, I’m sure, she was used to walking. I was so impressed with what I observed that I ran out the door and caught up with the two companions and told Nancy how moved I was that she was so sensitive to her dog’s needs that she slowed down her normal walking speed to accommodate her friend’s older age. She smiled back at me and told me that what I had said made her day.

Nancy’s comment made my day too. For I’ve learned that showing appreciation for what others are doing, by making a loving and caring remark, enhances my sense of wellbeing as well.

I realize what I did may very well appear to be a small thing, an insignificant event in each of our lives, but upon further reflection, I feel it had great significance for both of us. This small connection between me and Nancy represents something bigger, something I believe we should all make the effort to do more of. And that is to take the risk to communicate from our hearts (empathy, compassion) rather than solely from our heads (intellect, information). When we communicate only the business of life, we only meet basic requirements: I need this, I can give you that; I think this because of that; it’s a tit for tat, egocentric, often selfish, typically idiosyncratic exchange of needs and desires. Small talk might be made on a more personal level, but these exchanges, too, occur at the expense of deeper connection and selfless acts of kindness. When I told Nancy how moved I was, I wasn’t only sharing a reaction, I was telling her that I saw her, I saw her dog, I saw who they were—as individuals and in relationship—and that the unmistakable love between them had reached beyond the two of them and moved me. Then, because I reached back to share this dynamic with her, I implicated myself into the same kind of altruistic and humane behavior that she displayed for Sage. And thus, love was multiplied on my street.

This type of exchange is highly preferable to what we currently have when we speak of political activity of all sorts, to be sure. But the more we engage in it personally, even on a daily basis, the more likely we all—politicians and nonpoliticians alike—will be able to develop the skill of loving and caring for others in our hearts. If such feelings are not readily accessible in our preconscious, so they become manifest in a moment’s notice—for a politician, say—then in the effort to garner votes, it is pretty impossible to appear genuinely concerned about the electorate’s welfare. For the nonpolitician, ordinary citizens, a charade of caring is usually detected quickly, and authentic connection cannot be made.

Buy just imagine what America and the world would be like if we all kept in the forefront of our minds a commitment to showing a loving and caring attitude toward each other, whether human or otherwise, strangers and loved ones alike. I can see, over time of course, a scenario in which the hostility and vitriol becomes dramatically reduced when talking politics. If, as we go forward, our habitual competition for dominance and self-aggrandizement were replaced with a caring, empathetic, and compassionate spirit, it would dramatically reduce the incivility and hostile responses that lie just beneath the surface whenever political viewpoints different from one’s own are discussed; whenever negotiations for the world’s and the nation’s resources are on the table; whenever solutions to problems in our cities and rural areas, in our air and our water, in our schools and our communities are being sought. Imagine if our impulse were to see the reality and the needs of others and to let ourselves be moved by them. Wouldn’t we then develop the skills to more readily address those solutions for everyone’s benefit and not just for a few, not just for “number one”?

Then imagine, over time, the intransigent, inexorably grim, and clearly prejudicial responses that too many politicians routinely express toward the opposition makes way for laws being passed by Congress and signed by the president that represent compromise with that opposition instead. It’s not magic. Compromises are achieved by those with differing, even opposing, views cooperating with, collaborating with, and sometimes even accommodating themselves to one another’s viewpoints. These might even be the same viewpoints that they were completely unwilling to embrace in times past, the same viewpoints that politicians and citizens aligned with different parties are so unwilling to embrace today.

If that were to happen—that magical adjustment toward seeing and hearing those whose lives and perspectives are different from their own, yet are equally valid and worthy of serious consideration for bill adoption—if enough of this kind of cooperative thinking continued, ultimately, it should be obvious that Congress and the White House would recognize the only thing to do is to represent the views of all Americans and to meet the needs of all of us too. That would be some change of atmosphere from primarily meeting the needs of lobbyists for rich special interest groups such as corporations or any other organization that is using our political system for personal gain at the American taxpayers’ expense.

There is nothing clearer: the rising tide of love is the only tide that raises all boats. Let’s demand it, from ourselves, first of all, freely giving it to our neighbors and those we choose to be in relationship with, as well as from those we elect to public office. Let us imagine a time where a “tide of love” floods Washington and then, with both politicians and citizens rising to it, floods our whole nation. Then we might see the rare case when a flood becomes remedial, for love is indeed the great elixir of life and a rising leveler that, through its magical powers, could one day save our democracy and republic from total destruction.