If you walk down the street and see someone in a box, you have a choice. That person is either the other and you're fearful of them, or that person is an extension of your family.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the choice we have in how we view others, particularly those in need, whether with fear or as part of our shared humanity.
Susan Sarandon's quote invites us to reflect on our perceptions of others, especially those who are marginalized or struggling. It highlights the human tendency to view people in extreme circumstances as 'other' or different, fostering fear and separation. Alternatively, it encourages us to see them as part of our larger human family, deserving of compassion and connection. This perspective can promote empathy and a sense of community, challenging us to act with kindness rather than judgment.
In practice
In a speech about community service, one could use this quote to encourage attendees to connect with those less fortunate.
At a time when everything seems so out of control and the people you've elected are bogus and there's so much random violence and hatred, it fills you with such hope and admiration to even be part for a short time in a community where people have connected to strangers to try to put out a hand.
Suffering should not define you as a woman! And just because you’re a man it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect you! HELP HER to remove the taboos and the loneliness surrounding this disease; be understanding, show empathy, and don’t accuse her of being sensitive, delicate, or overly dramatic – this is a big opportunity for you guys to show that you care and to be a real man!
Knowledge is the key to stopping the spread of AIDS. Yet millions of children are missing an education. Missing their teachers who have died of the disease. Missing from class as they stay home to care for their dying mothers and fathers. Children are missing your support. United for Children. Unite against AIDS.
We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'.
Do you really expect me to say gravity hasn't taken its toll? No. But as I'm earning these lines [in my face], I'm making an aesthetic choice.
When my children wake up in the morning they know they will eat breakfast, get hugs from their parents, go to a good, safe school. Plates are full and store windows are glittering. But at the same time the great majority of the world's children and women stand - no - shiver on the precipice
The general impression is that fifteen year-old Dolly remains morbidly uninterested in sexual matters, or to be exact, represses her curiosity in order to save her ignorance and self-dignity.
The white actresses I have known have been allowed to do 10 times more than I shall ever do.
It is difficult to be generous-minded to those we have greatly harmed.
If you have not had direct firsthand experience of loving a category of person - a person of a different race, a profoundly religious person, things that are real stark differences between people - I think it is very hard to dare, or necessarily even want, to write fully from the inside of a person.
The first thing you should do with an actor is not sign a contract with him. Take him to dinner. And take him for a walk afterwards.
Not what we give, but what we share, for the gift without the giver is bare.
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