Nine Gold Medals

Three words first:

• sympathy: feeling sorry for someone ('I'm so sorry. Do you want something to eat?');
• empathy: understanding how they feel from the inside ('I can imagine how you feel');
• compassion: understanding and then acting to help ('I'll stay with you so you don't feel lonely').

Read the poem in your book on pages 156-158, by David Roth. Its eight stanzas tell a story, like a ballad.

The race. Athletes have come from all over the country after months of training. A crowd gathers round the old field for the last event of the day: a hundred-yard dash for nine runners, at the Special Olympics (for athletes with intellectual disabilities).

The fall. The pistol fires. The smallest runner stumbles, staggers and falls on the asphalt (a hard black road surface), crying out as his dreams seem dashed.

The surprise. When someone falls in a race, we might think: one less competitor. Instead, the other eight stop, turn back one by one, and lift him to his feet. All nine join hands and walk to the finish under a Special Olympics banner. There are nine gold medals, a standing ovation and nine beaming faces. That is compassion in action.