A great fuss about when we become human
According to the Old Testament, which is held sacred by Jews, and Christians, and a large number of Muslims, when God breathes into the form of the first human, Adam became a human being.
Trees and plants make the air we breath (after being formed from the dust of the Earth, as we are.) so they are the Creator/Creation.
In this sense, God is not outside us, but within us. In each of us.
Breath is something exchanged and shared always, even as everything inhaling and exhaling changes over millennia.
We inhale atoms once breathed by William Shakespeare, Marie Curie, and Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, but also Hitler, and these days, sadly, the justices of the Supreme Court.
Everything has everything to do with everything
The world is presently under several threats. Losing democracy, burning and flooding due to our inability to control our consumption, huge divides about surface things like our sex, race, and gender.
Knowing that all things are One helps us realize our unity, but also our fragility. You are not separate from what you eat, or who grows it, whether or not you are a vegan or a carnivore.
You can support Antifa, or the more organized, extreme right wing. You can organize for BLM, #MeToo, or just be distracted by Johnny Depp. You can be for, or against, migrants and refugees.
But no matter what, you share with “the other.”
You cannot not share the breath, atoms, and DNA of every living being, regardless of what fictional stories about creation, purpose, sexuality, human rights, or however you define “right to life.”
By stories, I mean the myths we invent to define us which are made up, like money, economy, conflicting religion, and borders.
Therefore, in reflection of what we know of actual reality, we must re-form our values about our mutual belonging.
Yes, we should use technology, AI, advanced systems, bio-medical engineering, and more. We need equality and collaboration, desperately.
But our core values of belonging, our human social psychology, our spirituality, matter greatly.
Our belonging and compassion are the primary things we need to acknowledge and share.
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
***
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
 White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism |
 Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box |
 The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer |
 |
—
Photo credit: Matthew Henry on Unsplash
