Each of us faces difficulties from time to time. They are known to be difficult to overcome alone. They oppress a person and prevent him from moving on, forgetting adversity. At such moments, we realize how great the price of sympathy is. We need someone, even one living soul, to listen to us and understand how hard it is for us. That is why people at all times will value responsiveness and the ability to cheer up.
In the novel “War and Peace,” Tolstoy described many really kind and sympathetic characters who demonstrate the best features of the Russian national character. For example, Natasha Rostova showed a phenomenal sensitivity during the evacuation of Muscovites. She persuaded her parents, who were already on the verge of ruin, to give carts for transporting luggage to the wounded defenders of the homeland. Without this transport, there was no way to transfer the necessary cargo, but the family put up with another loss, because mercy should always be higher than the desire for material enrichment. Interestingly, fate thanked the Rostovs, because both Nikolai and Natasha made profitable parties, that is, they saved the noble family from impoverishment.
Another example of responsiveness was described by M. Sholokhov in the story "The Fate of Man." Andrei Sokolov lost his whole family in the war: his wife and daughters died under bombing, his son died storming Berlin. He was left completely alone; he had no need to live. But on the way home he found the boy Vanyusha, who was also orphaned. Then the soldier’s heart sank, how can one get past a small but such piercing grief? And so he introduced himself to the boy as his father, took him to him and put all the forces of his unspent love into raising his adopted son. This tragic image embodied the whole broad and mysterious Russian soul, which conceals an inexhaustible source of responsiveness and compassion.
Thus, people always need sympathy, especially in difficult times, when a person is left alone with the grief of loss. Therefore, it is very important not to lock your soul under the influence of losses and hardships, but to open it towards the sincere and good emotions that the magic of empathy conceals. It is she who can heal any wound, and therefore is highly valued.
