The other day as I strolled through the night, the moon and the stars gleaming, my thoughts started to ponder on a word that has become more common in my vernacular.
Humanity. The human race, the collective of human beings.
Me to you. To Your neighbors to their family. To the server to the chef. To the person singing along to music to the person who created the song. To the shopper to the cashier. From the writer to the reader, so on and so on…
Then in this lonesome walk I paused my strides and stared at the stars looking down at me wondering if they view humanity just as we view them. A collective, a whole, a group.
Yes we view stars just like that… as stars… but still we show respect to their unique individual characteristics knowing each one is created special. We do that with trees, animals, food… once again the list can go on.
But why can’t we do the same with humans?
Since my youth this is something I did not understand. Now I know that everything listed above (and more) has individuals who show no regard or respect, but that can be a discussion for another day. Let’s solely focus on why can’t humans just appreciate our differences, our hues. Our different colors in mind, body, and soul.
We are categorized as humans but that is just the umbrella of our existence. Some of us have aspects that differ mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually but…the embrace of our independent attributes is quite rewarding by allowing us to see through a lens that is a mirror. How I see myself and how I treat myself is only a mere reflection of how I will reciprocate all to you.
I am you and you are me. If I treat myself with value, care, kindness… love… the essence of me shall do the same to you. But if I choose to treat myself with cruelty then things will trickle outwards. And from one generation to the next things get jumbled into a repetitive cycle of unhealed humans doing what was projected onto them.
James Baldwin once said “Love has never been a popular movement. And no one’s ever wanted, really, to be free. The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people. Otherwise, of course, you can despair. Walk down the street of any city, any afternoon, and look around you. What you’ve got to remember is what you’re looking at is also you. Everyone you’re looking at is also you. You could be that person. You could be that monster, you could be that cop. And you have to decide, in yourself, not to be.”
And with that my friends the decision is up to you… because human can not be spelled without “u”.
-Huemanity
October 10, 2024 11:25pm