We Are All of These Things

By Tim Aiello MA LPC ADHD-CCSP ASDCS – Clinical Director & Therapist, Myndset Therapeutics

When I was in high school my mom gave me a quote that has stayed with me my whole life.

"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these." - George Washington Carver

I did not know then how deeply it would shape the way I see people. I did not know how many times I would be reminded of it when I felt judgment creeping in or when I was tempted to only see the surface of someone’s story.

Life has a way of putting us in each of these places. When we are young we need tenderness. We are learning who we are. We are trying and failing and trying again. When we are older we need compassion. We carry years of stories both beautiful and heavy. When we are striving we need someone to believe in us even when the road feels too steep. When we are weak or wrong we need someone to give us grace.

The truth is that we are all connected by more than we realize. We share the same fragile humanity. Our lives might look different on the outside but the emotions that live inside us are made of the same stuff. Joy feels the same. Grief feels the same. Fear feels the same. Love feels the same. When we see someone in pain or making mistakes it is not about seeing “them” as different from “us.” It is about recognizing that their story could have been ours if life had unfolded just a little differently.

Empathy grows when we allow ourselves to imagine being in someone else’s place without needing to justify or agree with their choices. It is the understanding that people are shaped by countless moments we will never see. Their actions are often tied to struggles we may never know. Extending empathy does not mean excusing harm but it does mean refusing to strip someone of their dignity just because we cannot relate to their experience.

It is easy to forget this in a world that moves so fast and rewards quick judgments. It becomes even harder in times that feel dark and divided. We scroll past moments that should make us stop and feel. We speak more than we listen. We walk by people we ignore because we cannot see our connection. We fear people because we cannot see ourselves in them. We fixate on what separates us instead of the truths we all share. But when we slow down and remember that at some point we will need every one of those things — tenderness compassion sympathy tolerance — it changes the way we treat people now.

I think that is why this quote has stayed with me. It is not just about being kind. It is about recognizing ourselves in everyone we meet. It is about understanding that the line between “me” and “them” is a lot thinner than we think. And that one day we will find ourselves on the other side of it.

So I keep it close. I keep it for the days when my patience is thin. I keep it for the moments when someone’s actions make no sense to me. I keep it to remind me that life moves in cycles and roles change. One day I will need what I have given.

And I hope when that day comes someone will remember this too.