A man leaves his home and starts a Facebook livestream, intending to enter a place of worship and harm people. It might sound like a scene from a video game, or the beginning of one of those not-so-psychological thrillers, but definitely not a real-life event.
I’m using the Christchurch attack as just one example among many. I don’t want to dwell on the why, the attacker’s manifesto, or their future targets. I’m not saying these aren’t important; I’m simply emphasizing that all these attacks, along with actions and comments that belittle certain aspects of human nature, share a common theme of hateful “us” versus “them” thinking. It’s a completely misguided mindset that wrongly suggests we belong to almost different species and, more importantly, it robs us of what should always be with us, which is our humanity.
First and foremost, we are all human beings, and then we exhibit various beautiful facets that make each of us unique and, consequently, important and precious for the continuity and evolution of the human race. Mother Nature created biodiversity to ensure survival, and we are part of this incredible project. Our diversity is the same richness that has allowed us to come this far.
We are women, men, children, white, yellow, red, fat, thin, athletes, beautiful, ugly, tall, short, with eyes of many different shades, workers, doctors, writers, designers, mixed-race, Asian, African, activists, homebodies, dog lovers, wealthy, educated, and so on…
Think about how many wonderful adjectives it would take to fully describe you, and then consider how many others, perhaps completely contradictory, would be needed to describe the person you admire or love, or how many similar ones you might find in someone you don’t like. None of us can be reduced to just one adjective, and that same adjective cannot fully describe us at every moment of our lives because we evolve and change based on our experiences. None of us can be defined solely by what we possess.
But EACH of us, absolutely EVERYONE, always and in every moment of our existence, can be described as human beings… Humans, plain and simple.
And all of us have contributed to what we are in this world and what we will become. Each one of us, every single one, is a fundamental piece of the puzzle that is human existence. When we divide ourselves into “us” and “them,” we do nothing but deny a part of this humanity. We try to stifle and conform everything to a standard, blocking the process of becoming, of transformation… We don’t accept it.
But that’s the silliest thing one can do because it’s like not accepting that you have an index finger just because it’s not a middle finger, or not accepting that our legs grow longer when we’re becoming adults…
Let’s remain Human.
Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you’ve no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain. Saadi of Shiraz, 1203 – 1291
wherever traveler 