Empathy: What are the roles of empathy in dealing with every day life?

When asked to describe love, William Shakespeare wrote this short verse, "Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs, being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes, being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, a choking gall and a preserving sweet." One who has fallen into a deep love can understand this sort of torn feeling of a heaven and hell, such as Terri in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." No one seemed to be able to empathize with her about her love for and with her late ex, unlike the son of the hard working father in "…