Growing up in a small but a religiously claimed little nation, I would often hear the
phrase, “I am not perfect, I am just human.” The term “human” in this context could
be interpreted as the imperfections of something/someone. It is often the excuse that
these so-called religious people would make when caught red-handed doing
something that is absolutely not religious.
But the term “human” is the very identity that our race/kind has chosen to be
identified by collectively. To an individual, what then does it really mean to be a
human being? Are we merely just a collection of “imperfect” beings that we are to be
individually identified by our personal mistakes? Noah, that’s ridiculous to say the
least!
The Hebrew word “Adam” is translated into English as human. The Hebrew word
literally means soil and is synonymous to the Latin word “humus,” meaning earth or
ground. It is by this interpretation that some would often refer to ourselves as
“earthlings.”
This is one of the known arguments suggesting that we were made from the earth and
will one day return to the earth. It is uttered in almost every burial service that from
the ashes and the dust we came, therefore we shall return.
But is that who we are? Are we just a speck of dust from the ground where we stand?
Patriotism did not appear out of thin air. If we are to accept that we are the very soil
that we stand on, it is no surprising that billions identify by nationality, the very soil
in which they stand on. But is that who we truly are?
The Latin word “Homo” is also translated into English as human. Evolutionists may
argue that we are the remaining species in the family of homo sapiens. Creationists on
the other hand would argue against it, obviously. But what does the human experience
teaches us about who we are, and more importantly who we could be?
If we are to observe people’s daily experiences, we would find that in different ways,
shapes and forms, everyone is struggling with something. Even in cases where a
certain group is struggling due to the same causes, they do so in various degrees. The
whole human experience revolves around that struggling.
Since suffering is often one of the byproduct of struggling, compassion then should be
a necessity. But why should there be compassion?
Logically, we cannot be compassionate if no one is suffering. There wouldn’t be a
need for doctors if there weren’t any patients. There wouldn’t be a need for teachers if
there weren’t any students. Similarly, the only reason why compassion would ever
make sense if someone else was already suffering. Coincidently, everyone is, as
previously established.
But to be compassionate is a choice that one has to make. If it weren’t a choice,
everyone would have shown compassion at all times. It could be that we’re just not
wired that way from birth, or we’re not all being nurtured by society to be so. It is then
a choice an individual has to make, consciously or otherwise.
By definition, to be compassionate is to be humane. Interestingly, to “be humane” is
literally how the term “human being” is constructed. And given that the words
humane and human traces their roots to the same Latin word, this may imply that a
human being is a being that is humane. But are we so? If we’re not, shouldn’t we be?
Through our own experience, it could be argued that a human being is a choice in
which any being chooses to be humane. If so, then the following picture is one of the
best depictions of what “humanity” could be, where two beings (a man and a dog)
while they are currently struggling, they still choose at the same time to be kind and
compassionate to each other.
Arguably, being human should have nothing to do with the soil we stand upon. It is
recipe for disaster given that once we define ourselves as the soil we’re standing on,
we will eventually find ourselves fighting for that damn soil.
Unfortunately, that is the history of our species where we have killed millions (if not
billions) under the delusion that we’re somehow fighting for our country.
It is also one of the contributing factors that are currently claiming many Ukrainian
and Russian lives.
If we are to identify as beings that are humane, we are defining ourselves as the
instrument that deals directly with the struggles and suffering we’re facing daily. We
would be identifying as the solution rather than the problem. If that is what a human
being should be, perhaps this world would be a far better place than it currently is.
Perhaps!
