Grace

Grace requires the second part of empathy – the caring that follows from the understanding of others – combined with an ability to reflect on one’s insertion into any social situation before it happens and get it right, and with no apparent effort.

The sentence above, for example, is middling for ‘grace’. It was harder to construct than I would have liked and the reader will have to think more than he or she should.

But then a Peter Carey, or similar, would have extracted a whole spaghetti-like novel out of it. And then he would be accused of being a genius, complete with praise for his graceful prose. And most readers would be none the wiser.

Moving on, I have a friend that completely lacks grace, and for all the wrong reasons. It’s for the wont of the caring part of empathy. In fact, this lack of grace is a mantra that he carries to cover for his inability to come up with a functioning life philosophy.

All you have to do is try, and try, and it will all come to you eventually. The harder it is, the more graceful the results will be.