spes

what distinguishes human beings from animals? at first it would seem as if there is no difference. humans fight with each other. they desire satisfaction of carnal needs and depend on natural instincts to survive. the human being on the physical side of things does look pretty much like an animal.

what about the intellectual side? humans learn from their mistakes. they question their world. yet these are all things that animals have been seen to exhibit as well. just look at any of the PETA videos that study the nature of animals. sure it's biased towards their goals but it is hard to deny the observations within it. i used to think that the difference between animals and humans was that we ask 'why'. why do we exist? why do things work as they do? animals don't seem to exhibit these existential ponderings, but we have no way of measuring or quantifying it. we can't understand their language nor can we listen to their thoughts. so it is just a guess. animals seem to just exist and to do whatever it is that they need to exist. they don't seem to stop and question why it is that they do what they do.  but maybe this can be seen in the animal who challenges the alpha male for leadership of the pack. that challenger overthrew the status quo in order to change things as they were. if animals were complacent beings that didn't wonder why, then why would they challenge the status quo? maybe it is all based on carnal needs...

i think that what differentiates humans from animals is hope. we humans hope all the time. we hope for a better life. we hope for love. we hope for happiness. even when a situation begs for no hope at all, we continue to hope against all odds. we hope when we know we shouldn't. we hope that there is meaning to the joy and misery in our lives. we hope that there is something greater than us out there. animals don't hope. they act in order to get what they need.

maybe it's because humans desire more than they should. is it wrong to desire more to life than what we already have? desire is supposed to lead to suffering and to end suffering we need to end desiring. the author of 'buddha's brain' suggests that it is not desire but craving that leads to suffering. and if we take the driving force of craving out of desire, we are left with hope again. hope is what nourishes us and dooms us. but hope is all we have. hope is that small candle burning within us, flickering yet constantly burning. hope is the essense of humanity. it is the breath of the holy spirit within us. it is our guide and our burden.

yet what of the hopeless? i don't think there is such a thing. when someone is hopeless in one particular desire, the hope just diverts itself towards something else. hope can not be killed because it is eternal. it's what gives us life and drives us forward.

esse hominem

what does it mean to be human? we all strive to be happy all the time but that isn't the human experience. we laugh. we cry. we get angry. these are all part of the different facets of the emotional human. humanity is unpredictable yet understandable. it is irrational but logical. it is full of inconsistencies and contradictions. that is life as a human being. we shouldn't ignore one part of our emotional life in favor of another. we need all of it to help us on our journey.

why do we try to avoid sadness and anger and confusion? there is a reason for why we would respond to the stimulus of the world in that way. our basic human instincts are telling us that something needs to change. maybe we need to change, whatever 'change' means in that situation. these negative emotions signal us to tell us that we need to fix something to regain balance. besides, we can not understand what it means to be 'happy' without knowing these negative emotions.

what if that's all we experience? that we fall into a pit of despair so large that we can no longer see the way out? where our only comfort is the sadness and anger that we carried in with us. what will become of us then? it may seem like we are all alone, but if we only look over the edge, outside our pit, we could see that there are many other people in their own pits trying to get out as well. yet, knowing this does not push us out into the world. we are still stuck. we all need someone to take the time to extend a hand into our pit of despair. she risks falling in herself but she takes the risk because she knows that she may pull someone out into the light.  and that small hope is all she needs to put her hand in, yearning for it to be grabbed. it is the same small hope that the person in the pit has when she extends her hand upward.

humans are not isolated creatures. we are social. we need community. we depend on each other for so much of our existence. we can not hide away in our houses wishing to have life when we are only watching it pass us by. we have to dive head first into the world and take whatever we get, whether that may be something good or something bad. it's the gamble we take. life is full of the choices we make and the risks that we take. if we don't do anything then we have nothing.

veritas

the truth is a funny thing. many times we search for it, begging others to whisper it in our ears, but once we hear it, we wish we hadn't. we wish we had left curiosity well enough alone. ignorance could have truly been bliss. however, we live in a broken world with broken people. we can't afford to hold onto ignorance. it will chain us and lock us into a single mindset that won't help us solve the problems we face every day. the only chance we have at surviving this crazy, mixed-up world is to open our minds to the many different thoughts that exist within it, deepening the well from which we can search for an answer.

and search we must. there is a lot of information out there ready to be accessed by anyone willing to listen. yet, many people speak erroneous words, hoping to prey on our fears and weaknesses. we will have to be strong enough to wade through these biases sent to deviate us from our quest for knowledge. we will have to think critically about everything we thought we knew to be true and about every new thought or opinion we come across. we will have to learn what we can hold dear within our hearts and what we must take with a grain of salt. we were not created to blindly follow but to use our brains to ponder. we are truth seekers and the truth is hidden somewhere inside each of us. let us venture forward and reach for that wisdom to discover ourselves.