Nobody laughs in a different language. Nobody cries in a different language. We may speak different languages, have different cultures and have learned to understand the world in very different ways, but there are things that need no translation. A smile when we are happy, a tear when we suffer, a hug when we need comfort, or silence when we cannot find the words. They are human responses that we recognize even when we do not understand a single word from the person in front of us.

Perhaps empathy should work the same way. It should not depend on someone thinking like us, speaking like us, or having lived the way we have. Understanding another person does not mean agreeing with them or having experienced the same things. It means recognizing that behind every person there are emotions, fears, desires and wounds that are probably much closer to our own than we imagine. We can learn many languages throughout our lives, but perhaps the most important one is the language we all understand from the moment we are born: the language of feeling.