It’s not possible to truly experience someone else’s feelings, but some artworks can get you pretty close. I experienced two such artworks recently: one on 9/24/2011 at the Sundance Resort in Utah, and the other on 9/29/2011 in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition.

At Sundance hip-hop spoken word artist Rha Goddess embodied the character and soul of a single mother whose working and mothering life are ruled by a diminishing city bus schedule. I had of course been intellectually aware of the vital nature of public transportation, but Rha Goddess’ performance put me in the shoes of an affected person.

In Scott’s Addition it was Richmond Triangle Players’ production of Tennessee Williams’ “Suddenly Last Summer” that accomplished the same – the shoes of a mother who can’t accept the sexuality of her deceased son (“my son Sebastian”), the shoes of a young woman whose romantic love was refused by Sebastian, and the shoes of the deceased Sebastian who was destroyed by his sexuality in a world not ready for it.

Sincere empathy is one of those qualities that enable us to understand and care for people – and great artworks, as those presented by Rha Goddess and Richmond Triangle Players, can work that magic.