Humanity, what a silly lot we are.
We primp, and we preen. We shamelessly parade about cloaked in our over-inflated sense of self-importance and hubris. We bluff, bluster and bully each other to no end.
We can show heart-wrenching tenderness, unbridled compassion and perform selfless acts of great sacrifice. We can also commit unspeakable acts of cruelty, depravity and loathsome perversion. We cause each other great pain and misery as well as great joy and happiness. We can be loving and generous to our friends and families, or vindictive, spiteful and hateful to our enemies. We can perform unselfish acts of heroism, or commit terrible acts of indiscriminate savagery.
We harbor grudges that span centuries, devote our lives to vendettas and feuds whose exact origins fade in memories of the misty past, while endangering our loved ones in the here and now. We perpetuate endless cycles of violence convinced that only more killing and maiming will satisfy our lust for revenge, and a restoration of our honor.
We refuse to learn from our mistakes, we continue on courses which, though patently counter-productive and futile, we seem unable to alter. But for every wrong which is thought to be righted another wrong has been committed—and thus the cycle continues.
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that definition we are, as a species, fundamentally insane.
We are, as is every living creature, guided by the dictates of our biological imperative. The desire to reproduce, to protect our families, to comfort the sick and feed the hungry, to provide for a secure future for our descendents, they are imprinted upon our very DNA. Our survival as a species depended on it and to some extent, still does.
We are who we are. And under a thin veneer of civilization our animal ancestry still lurks within. Predators in the natural world kill because they must. They kill to survive; not for sport, not for revenge, not for pleasure. Only we, Mankind, kill because we can.
Of all the known species we, humanity, is the only one which craves power for power’s sake.
We are innately flawed and imperfect, yet we strive to be better than we are. We are a host of contradictions constantly challenged by our inner daemons, unwitting stars in our own individual divine comedy.
Most of us travel through our lives functioning on a plain of limited consciousness. All our energy is consumed by the mundane travails of maintaining our day-to-day existence; of raising a family, providing food and shelter; of eking out a living to purchase the necessities of life for ourselves and our loved ones.
We have scant time to reflect on the essence of who we are, where we came from, and where we hope to be. Taking time for reflective thought is a luxury most of us can ill afford to indulge—who has time to ponder the universe when all your effort goes to staying alive and keeping your head above the water.
And so we leave it to our leaders to tell us how to act and think, who to vote for (if we’re privileged to have that option), which fads to follow, how to behave, what to believe. It’s easier to let someone else do our thinking for us.
We are, however, ultimately all stewards of our own existence, all responsible for the personal choices we make everyday. Most of us can’t choose our situations, but we can choose how we deal with them. We can be held hostage by events or endeavor to shape those events to suit us.
We are all members of a single family, Humanity, sharing a communal nest and living under the same roof, The Earth. We can not continue to foul our nest—even the lowliest animal knows better. We can not continue to treat our brothers and sisters as unwanted strangers and unbidden guests. We must embrace our shared existence on this singular planet; we must become stewards for each other, protective of our fellows and accepting of our differences. We must promote the positive and negate the negative—we must free ourselves from the bondage of small minds and self-serving agendas. We must nurture our loving spirits and suppress our hateful impulses. We all must strive to be better than we are—if not for our own sakes then for the sake of our children and their future.
Comments