What Defines Humanity

I have often asked the question, as an echo of other's curiosity, 'What is a human?  Is there anything that defines us - a single trait or characteristic?' And today, I sat with that question, and something came.

'If the birds can build nests and raise their children to point
Where they are confident and ready to fly from the top of the trees - sometimes without any fear;

If the bees and the ants can work together in massive number
To construct and design complex hives and miniature caverns for their survival;

If the flowering plants can bloom with vibrant color and sweet, vital nectar
Dedicated to feeding the pollinating insects of the wild plains and woods;

If the dolphins and the whales of the oceans can speak to one another through language
In spite of the dark water's depths, and still recognize one another's emotions through sound alone;

If the Great Barrier Reef's coral structures have grown thanks to microscopic organisms' persistence,
By adding under two inches a year to each coral structure - and the reef can still be seen from space;

If a colony of quaking aspen trees, named Pando, can exist and share a single root system,
That can be estimated to have lived and grown individual tree trunks without dying for over eighty-thousand years;

 - And!

If the chimpanzees of African forests can create tools from the natural materials that surround them,
That they can use to enrich their own survival and their own quality of life...

...Why, exactly, do we get away with assuming that we are not just unique, but also special, for our parenting, for our social systems, for our art, for our language, for our structures and our drive to create, for our pursuit of a better and longer lifetime, or even for our tools, our innovation, and our affected quality of life...?'

So, I had to recognize that, no, none of these qualities are solely unique to people; none of these are ideas that define of what it means to be human.

I would say that even selfless compassion is not defining of the human.  Let's face it: we didn't develop any of these skills before our siblings and ancestors in the tree of life did; we're rather new to the scene, and the vast majority of them are not as new, if they can be described as new whatsoever.  No; we may have picked some of these up without knowing about them - perhaps, by dreaming of them, and by imagining them - but we have not created anything there that is so 'new' and 'unique' on such a basic level.

One thing that I do think is so unique about us, about Humanity, is the fact that we have had the opportunity to develop, hone, and master more skills and traits that can be used to sustain life than any other being on this planet has ever had the opportunity to do.

Our power and giftedness lies not in being unique through any one trait or single piece of knowledge; instead, it lies, in part, in the body of knowledge that we share as a whole people.  Through experimentation and experiences driven by a deep feeling of curiosity, we learn about the world - and our learning and our discoveries, we share with each other to benefit the greater human whole.  And in turn, we use the knowledge that we gain to improve our own lives, and the places in which we live out our lives.

But the focus of our work does not always stop at us; some people, if not many people, are called to expand beyond what affects their individual selves.  They work to improve their own life conditions, certainly - but, for any number of reasons, feel a call to move and continue to improve, to add onto, to serve and to better the world in which they live in some way.

Perhaps this is because the knowledge they have been handed down by past generations over time helps them to see that everything contributes to the environments in which and part of humanity lives; perhaps it is because there is something innate in the human that drives the human to perform actions based in a metaphysical concept and reality that is expressed through words like "kindness" and "compassion," "love" and "respect."

Or, perhaps both of these are true.  Perhaps some - or many - people come to the understanding that their drive to see a more improved world can be filled, and fulfilled, by acting on what they have learned about how they are a part of the world in which they live.  Perhaps, by learning about the natural and diverse, different relationships between people and other beings and things, many people come to realize that their positive impact on one part of the world can help to amplify the lives of others.

Now, I feel that I have to revisit my statement above; I don't think it is solely what we learn, in the form of skills and traits and knowledge, that makes us unique.  This other idea - the idea of choosing to improve some part, if not every part, of the world - is something else that I think also helps to define Humanity.

And that reoccurring choice - to better our selves and to do our best to better other people, places, things, and beings - may be my favorite defining feature out of all the features that help me to understand what it means to be Human.