The passing of Stanley Williams should bring us to consider the quality of mercy and compassion that we have the power to give and receive.

At the end of November, the NewScientist reported on the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. The article was titled “How Life Shapes the Brainscape.”

Some of the most striking findings reported in the article concern the relationship between depression and trauma.

One of the findings was that the emotion centers of the brain differed between traumatized and untraumatized people: those who were traumatized had a muted response to positive stimuli and an amplified response to negative stimuli.

Another finding concerned what happens when people with depression are put in a stressful situation. For people who were traumatized, mild stress caused significantly greater production of stress hormones. It would not be inaccurate to call it an overreaction.

Finally, previous studies have found that drugs and therapy are about equally effective in treating people with depression. But people with depression who suffered trauma responded dramatically better to therapy.

And what is therapy? It is the giving and receiving of mercy and compassion.

Ironically, I was originally going to comment on a report from the CDC published last week about increased life expectancy. It was a celebration of our slightly longer lives. With warnings about what looms in our future that will turn increase to decline. Trauma that changes the brain was not among them. Nor the death penalty.

One of the striking things I’ve found about the circumstances of Stanley Williams death is that attention and opinions swirl around his guilt, innocence, and redemption. But it seems to me that living in a society where the death penalty is accepted isn’t about any inmate’s guilt, innocence, or redemption. It’s about ours.

As the NewScientist article points out, if life can ruin your brainscape, life can also cultivate it to health. We can shape our brains by acting with the quality of mercy and compassion that we have the power to give and receive.

Related resources are available on the Mind, Mood, and Stress page.