Human Beings // Being Human

I thought it odd how someone could desire to write about human existence as a whole, given that in order to write about the entirety of the human race one must somehow summarize the billions of years lived with merely the 171,476 words in the English language. Especially since, aside from our written and physical past, such as the cities raised, the building demolished, the continents conquered, and the human lives ended, we are so much more. We are love. We are heartbreak. We are fear. And we are hope. We are every emotion possible and then some.

And yet, here I am, with a desire to write about it.

However, I am not tackling, or even attempting, to write about everything. The utter thought is impossible. What’s not impossible, on the other hand, is to show the vast measure of our individual existence. What we are is not just our past, nor solely our future. We are now, a time that never stops and never repeats.

First, consider this: nothing would be the same if you did not exist. I’m sure you’re wondering, how would anyone know if we didn’t exist? And that’s the thing, they wouldn’t. But, just because they wouldn’t know your presence doesn’t mean they wouldn’t feel your absence.

Think about your neighbor. The sweet older lady with the creepy cat that always hisses at you. If you were not there to get her mail, bring her a chocolate pie on Thanksgiving, or simply wave hello in the mornings, she would know. She would feel that her life could have be more had there been someone to simply acknowledge and appreciate her existence. You would be missed.

Think about your grandfather. Maybe he would have other grandchildren that he loves dearly, but none of them have his eyes, your eyes. He would always wonder about the feeling of looking into his grandchild’s eyes, of looking into his own eyes. You would be missed.

Beyond our being, think about what we feel. As you sit reading this, every single person in this world is experiencing this moment differently. Somewhere in this world right now, a baby has just taken their first breath, a child said their first word, someone said “I do!”. Simultaneously, someone just took their last breath. A man is burying the love of his life. Friends are saying “goodbye.” knowing that the next “hello” won’t be the same. All of this to say, however your day went, you are never alone in your feelings. Although we are all different, we are connected by a grand thing called the human experience. We all live.

So there, I wrote about being human. I am, we all are, human beings, meaning that to live we must be. Be in the moment. Be in tuned with what hurts us. Be there for each other. We are more than our past, and we will be more than our future. Things hurt us, but what matters most is how we take those challenges, and rise again.