Sympathy and Water

I do not have a lot of experience with sympathy. Giving or getting but if I suppose I give it more than get it. Well, now I have experienced sympathy in one of its most raw forms. Of course we can have sympathy for someone who just lost a pet. Definitely have it for someone who just lost a loved one. Both those mentioned are once removed. Perhaps having sympathy for someone that just hit their elbow or stubbed their toe is more of a direct sympathy. Watching the News and hearing of people dying in a far off land one can feel sympathy but not like, dare I say it, when someone stubs a toe in front of you. Think about it, you know it to be true. Have not been in a war I can only say, with some uncertainty that the greatest sympathy I have genuinely felt in a purely instinctive manner is thirst. There’s some kind of weird bond that forms between people when one is working extremely hard, nearly exhausted, and the other who has been there watching the other the entire time offers the worker water. He sees he is thirsty. No atelier motive, just simple care for a fellow human.
Of course, this is all dismissed once the work is over. But it is there, however short, however fleeting. Pure.