Story

“Flash Sale For Feelings” started with something that had been bothering me for quite a while: we seem to live in a world that talks about empathy more than ever before. Everywhere I look, I see hearts, messages of kindness, solidarity, awareness and understanding. We share other people’s stories, react to suffering, tell each other to be kind and remind ourselves that everybody deserves to be seen.
And yet, sometimes when I look at ordinary daily life, I see something very different.
Someone needs a little help and people walk past. Someone is lonely and nobody has time. An older person is standing while everybody else is staring at a screen. We can feel deeply affected by something happening thousands of miles away and, five minutes later, become irritated because the person directly in front of us is moving too slowly.
At first, I thought this song would be about that contradiction. About other people. About a society that has somehow learned how to display compassion better than it has learned how to practise it.
But while writing it, that explanation became too comfortable.
Because I am part of the same world.
I have a phone in my hand. I scroll. I react. I have opinions about how people should treat one another. I like to believe that I am empathetic and that I would notice when somebody needed help.
But would I always?
That question changed the song for me.
“Flash Sale For Feelings” became less of an accusation and more of a mirror. The humor is still there. Empathy is “half price.” Feelings are “two for one.” Compassion comes with “terms and conditions.” The language deliberately sounds like advertising because sometimes our public expressions of emotion can feel strangely similar to consumer products: immediately available, easily displayed and quickly replaced by the next thing demanding our attention.
Real empathy is much less convenient.
It can mean listening when I would rather speak. Waiting when I am in a hurry. Calling somebody when I don’t really feel like talking. Noticing the person beside me instead of the story on my screen. Sometimes it simply means giving another human being a few minutes of my time without receiving anything in return.
That is why the most important line in the song for me is:
“When your problem touches mine.”
That was the point where I stopped writing about everybody else.
It is easy for me to care when another person’s problem remains safely outside my own life. The real test begins when their problem requires my time, changes my plans, makes me uncomfortable or asks me to give up something of my own.
I don’t have a perfect answer to that.
And I don’t want the song to pretend that I do.
The deep dub-reggae groove and the smoky jazz elements give the words room to breathe. There is something almost relaxed about the music, while the lyrics become increasingly uncomfortable. I like that contradiction. The bass keeps moving, the Rhodes stays warm, the horns wander through the spaces, and underneath it all sits a question that becomes harder to ignore.
For me, “Flash Sale For Feelings” is ultimately not a song about whether the world has become less compassionate.
It is a much smaller and more personal question:
When compassion is no longer a slogan, a heart, a button or something I can express from a comfortable distance — what do I actually do?
And perhaps the most uncomfortable part is knowing that I can only answer that question the next time somebody else’s problem touches mine.

Lyrics

Everybody cares now
Look around
Hearts everywhere
Beautiful
Must be true
She posts a heart For someone crying
He writes We’re all the same
A thousand little Hands together
Underneath A profile name
Then someone drops A bag of shopping
Nobody stops Nobody sees
Too busy sharing Human kindness
To help her Pick up groceries
Care
Share
Show you care
Everywhere
Everywhere
Just don’t ask me
To be there
Flash sale for feelings
Get them while they’re hot
Compassion Half price
Give it all you’ve got
Flash sale for feelings
Everybody cares
Love for everybody
As long as
Nobody’s there
There’s kindness On the coffee cup
Love printed On the wall
Be gentle Says the T-shirt
While he pushes Past us all
The train is full
An old man standing
Twenty faces Looking down
Saving strangers On their screens
While one needs help
Right now
Care
Share
Show you care
Say the words
Wear the shirt
Raise the heart
Just don’t let it
Interrupt
Flash sale for feelings
Get them while they’re hot
Empathy Two for one
Take the whole damn lot
Flash sale for feelings
Everybody cares
Love for everybody
Terms and conditions
May apply
Maybe kindness Got too easy
Maybe words Got very cheap
Maybe caring From a distance
Doesn’t cost us Any sleep
Maybe love Is not a slogan
Not a button Not a sign
Maybe empathy Gets difficult
When your problem
Touches mine