Dumbo

 When Do We Lose Our Compassion?

I was thinking about Dumbo the other day—the scene where they lock up Dumbo’s mom, calling her a “mad” animal just because she wanted to protect her baby. They tore them apart, and little Dumbo just wanted his mother. I remember how much that scene hurt as a child. I felt it. I knew it was wrong.
But then I started wondering… at what point do we stop feeling so deeply?
As kids, we see suffering, and we care. We don’t ask whether it’s “just the way things are” or whether someone deserves it. We don’t think about money, tradition, or industry. We just feel. We cry when animals get hurt. We get angry when something isn’t fair.
And then, slowly, society tells us to stop.
We hear: “That’s just life.” “Don’t be so sensitive.” “Animals are here for us.”
We’re told to accept things we once knew were wrong.
But what if that childlike empathy wasn’t a weakness? What if it was the truth before the world tried to make us forget?
So, I want to ask—when do you think we lose our compassion? And why?
And to those who never let society mute their compassion—to those who stood up for what they believed in even when the world told them not to—I admire you so much. You’ve been fighting for what’s right all along, and the rest of us are just catching up.
Maybe we don’t need to “grow out of” caring. Maybe we need to grow back into it.