The Other Man's Burden

Most of the men and women who move about us from day to day are carrying hidden within their hearts a load of trouble and sorrow of one kind or another, and we, with our unseeing eyes, often walk roughshod over them, not understanding their cares and not being considerate of their burdens. Often we misjudge those whose circumstances we do not know. Those whom we meet in an impersonal way in places of business and on city streets and in all the crowded ways of life may seem to us at times to be sullen, to be impolite, to be inattentive to our wants. And not knowing what cares are troubling them, we, with our lack of understanding, ignore their breaking hearts, and fail to perceive the tears that life close to the surface and the world seems thoughtless because it does not understand. And so we reach a trite but basic conclusion that every man’s burdens are important to him, and that judgment must be withheld where wisdom and understanding are not sufficient to penetrate the hearts and thoughts and feelings of our fellows.