What it mean to be human? This is an age old question that has been debated throughout the said ages and one I am not likely to define on here.
Yet, I would like to take a moment and stab at what does it mean to be human? One word that comes to mind is “alone.” Some it would seem are alone amongst many, like the woman in New York City, who wrote to the newspaper asking how does one go about making friends in this day and age?
Tonight as I was having dinner with a friend/boss who I met through a Meetup event because we were both feeling “alone” in our living situations, we joined the same book group looking to meet and make new friends.
Our conversation turned to travel and road trips – I am not afraid to take various and sundry trips alone, I have traveled in state and out of state by myself and had an absolutely glorious time of it. However, my friend just about had a panic attack simply thinking about the prospect. Things like that make me really curious about people – because why is one person is more than willing to take on the wild blue yonder and the other just about turns blue simply thinking about it?!
Is that all part of the “human experience”? Having something so simple scare the gizzard out of us? I have another friend who is closer to heaven’s door who too, absolutely abhors the mere idea of being alone. Yet there are some who relish the idea of traveling to foreign countries alone with nothing more than the clothes on their back and perhaps one change and a couple of other personal items in nothing more than the most basic of backpack.
I have been giving a lot of thought to this idea of being human and what it really means of late. Is our whole goal to work, maybe get married, find a few shows on T.V. to enjoy, perhaps have some kids and then die? What about our legacy? Is it really important? I know a few people who would miss me for a season should I not be here – but thereafter, say, 5 years tops and I would be like the city of Atlantis only less famous and still gone forever.
Few it seems really take the time to either make a name for themselves or leave such a legacy that we can’t help but to remember them for generations to come, arguing about what they did or did not say, or how they meant the words they left behind. I have about 5 or so people who actually read this blog – and so it too would simply go further into obscurity.
Perhaps it’s time we all took our collective human experiences and turn them into something more? But what would that really look like if we all were able to create a gigantic platform as they say – where we all knew the other 699 billion other people on the planet? Would it be a modern day version of the Tower of Babel? Or do we already have that in the form of CNN and other 24 hour news networks? I suppose if we all tried to rise up and become known, no one would know anyone else any better…
The church talks about praying for revival – is leaving a legacy of a more than a shadow of a footprint here on the earth part of that “revival”? What are we really reviving? The revolutionist would call for a political revival, the communist would like to see more collectivism, the baptist more “holy living” and the heretics would call for more questioning of other religions…and around and around we would go
Interestingly, it would seem the people of the Babel era had one common goal, that of building a tower to heaven…when our language got scattered, is that when our common goal became scattered as well? Perhaps we should just go back to being human…
Single Slice of Cheese 