Commiserate is very close indeed. The only issue that I do have, is that the word does, yet again, deal with empathy. I am seeking the word that describes the act of viewing or seeing sorrow, and not the actual emotional connection.
It's the "amanuensis" function: to see, to register, to note, perhaps to record or to report, but not to sympathize or approve or judge, or indeed to respond in any way. Sorrow or joy or anything else is an independent dimension.
Robert Heinlein embodied it as Anne, the Fair Witness, in Stranger in a Strange Land. Neal Stephenson invoked it tangentially about three-quarters of the way through Anathem. I don't know that there's a single word for it.
Thats the point. There are special expressions and words for watching things and objects s.a. bird spotting, window shopping, but even those are not single words.
All of you survivors, have a very good Christmas Time amd a Happy New Year.
