What does it mean to you to be a human?
Please start your answer with your city and country.
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Once a year Conversation Cafes and co-hosts organize a week when everyone, everywhere is invited to sit down in small groups to consider together the most important questions in the world today. We live in challenging and complex times. No one knows THE answer, but everyone holds a piece of the answer. You can say your piece during Conversation Week. We, and the world, will be all listening.Read the Blog!
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- Globe & Mail: A Little More (Civil) Conversation
- Conversation Week in Second Life
- Discuss the Top 10 Questions Here
- Question 1: How can we best prepare our children for the future?
- Question 2: What does sustainability look like to you? How do we get there?
- Question 3: How do humans need to adapt to survive the changes predicted for this century?
- Question 4: How do we shift from “Me” to “We” on both the local and global levels?
- Question 5: How can you, as Gandhi said, be the change that you want to see in the world?
- Question 6: What kind of economic structures can best support a shift to sustainable living?
- Question 7: How should we re-invent the political process so that people feel that they have a voice?
- Question 8: What kind of leadership does the world need now?
- Question 9: How can we balance our personal needs with the most pressing needs of our community and the larger world?
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New York, USA: Six of us met in the Atrium of the IBM Building, in Manhattan, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Mar. 20 (we’re New Yorkers — we get a kick out of being ahead of the crowd at the hot new spot on the planet).
An interesting group, e.g., Harriet had just returned from a visit to New Orleans to work with the Red Cross, because she wanted to see for herself what it was like there; Ron was just back from Huntsville, Alabama, where he sparked a some Conversation Week action thereabouts; etc.
Among the meanings of being human which were expressed, explored, compared, and pondered, were:
* Being superstitious
* Being rational
* Sense of humor
* Being more like other animals than we like to admit
* Self-delusion
* Arrogance (we’re…New Yorkers…)
* Culture
* Language
* Adaptability
* Innovate
* The extent to which we murder one another in warfare
* The drive to take things FURTHER….
* Connaseurship (being delighted with being expert in limited areas)
In the final portion of the Conversation we came together around the idea that, since we had identified such divergent “essences” of being human, that perhaps the meaning of being human was to be a creature who does NOT have a pre-defined essence, who is problematical and multiple and contradictory to herself, and that resists definition — and among us we traced a tradition of such thinking from Pico Della Mirandola through Hamlet, to Nietzche, Sartre — and that guy at the next table mumbling to himself…..
If you’re in New York, come sample this group any Tuesday evening at 6:45 — the Atrium is at 55th Street and Madison Avenue. Look for the bushy-tailed group next to the table with the guy mumbling to himself…. (I know — I KNOW — mental illness is not something to joke about.)
To give freely and without expecting anything in return.
Great Neck, Long Island, New York, USA:
Hovering over the robust dialoguing of 24 souls at the Great Neck Library on March 30th was the spirit of Pico Della Mirandola, the 15th century maverick who proclaimed that ONLY HUMANS ASK THIS QUESTION (in his Oration on the Dignity of Man, the manifesto of the Renaissance). The Church tried to shut him down, but his declaration echoed down the centuries and resonated in our Conversation.
We divided into three groups of 8, and of course used the CC protocols, including beautiful “talking sticks” lent us by Zachary Cohn from his amazing collection. Superb rapporteurs caught the essence of each group’s deliberations and reported them back to the plenary at the end. There was a standing ovation for the CONVERSATION CAFE gang, especially Susan Portnow, for generously guiding our effort.
Among the views expressed — and explored, challenged, clarified, and admired — were:
* Humans can think and use language.
* To be human is to struggle.
* Humans know they will die.
* Humans can do great things in the name of humanity — or commit atrocities.
* Many humans think they will survive after death, and that greatly effects their behavior in this life.
* Humans have a sense of humor.
* Humans have a memory, and should learn from it.
* Humans have souls. (Or do they?, challenged others. Show me!)
* “Nothing human is alient to me.” (Terence — but I didn’t catch his last name)
* Would people struggling for survival in much of the world, ask this question? (Well, YES, came one response — even people living with only basic needs met, create mythologies about who they are, where they came from, where they are going.)
One group concluded: “We felt depressed at the state of humanity — but as humans we always have hope.
I thought I caught a glimpse of Pico, smiling.
Madison, WI. Saturday, March 31st.
An intimate group of 5 convened in the back room of Michelangelo’s Coffee Shop, a block from the State Capitol. Watching people come and go in the coffee shop we grabbed the hot sauce bottle and focused in:
What does it mean to be human?
We took our shot at answering this illusive question. Comments ranged from the scientific (limited and ovservable) aspects- physical characteristics, the ability to create (outside of survival instinct), laughter/sense of humor- to the spirit, soul and consciousnes. Humans having a sense of justice or fairness that they may or may not abide to. The experience of being human including the humane and inhumane. Both the light and dark. Humans have limits. The word humanity signifying mankind or a more recent definition of kindness or generosity.
We talked about when we have felt most human. It ranged from the most mundane of days to the ones when we have felt most vulnerable - for some, just felt most “alive”. Joy and loss or pain being the emotions that made us feel human.
We did not come to a conclusion persay, but we thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and thought it would be good to come together again to converse. To be human, to be uncomfortable in certain social situations (like the beginning of “deep” conversations with complete strangers), but the ability to appreciate what has brought one human to want to discuss such a question with others.
Thanks Conversation Week for the “excuse”!
I think that being human is being with the people i love and being able to care for others and be cared about. also being felt like i am making a difference in the world makes me feel human.
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Great question—What does it mean to be human?
I believe that it is living with an awareness of how fragile we are. It means lliving conscously and making choices , living in a way that respects all of life. And, it means admitting to mistakes and learning from them. Hopefully, you can have a sense of humur about this. It is a tall order this being human role— Sort of a Native American belief system is how I think of it.