Feelings of Empathy

I want to understand. 
 

How can you understand
what it is like to be 
a woman?
 

Okay, I wish I could say
that I have had the experience
of being a woman.
 

That's absurd
and bizarre.

I know.

Is it not the purpose of our discussion
an effort to help 
me to understand
what you have 
experienced?
What you felt?
What you want to feel?

You implied that there was
something I could not understand
and you were right.
There is no experience I can
understand 
other than my own 
or that which someone
tried to explain
so that I could understand
what I cannot understand.

I always start with the idea
that I cannot understand
what the other person
has experienced.

Every experience
in our lives
affects and shapes
each of the 
next experiences
in our lives.

"I don't understand,"
she answers.

"Neither do I.
So, let's talk."

But you don't understand...

Yes, I know.
Does it bother you
that I tell you that I
don't understand? 
 

I understand that you
understand 
that I don't understand
that you
don't think I understand.