Shedding the Identity Skin and Meeting the ‘human’ Within: A piece of Peace Fiction
From the first ever sculpture in human history, to every new born, the journey of humans continue. We all try to carve out the human inside our body. To be born in the human form does not make us all human, does it? We humans, unlike animals, need to learn everything from scratch. Turtles run to the sea the moment they left their egg shells. Ducks swim as if they are born experts. We humans, need to learn how to eat, talk, read, dress, and most importantly, how to be a human.
Learning is a never ending journey. There is always more to learn on how to be a better version of our self that was the version of in the past, yesterday. We humans, distinguish between the right and wrong only after certain age. We humans, manipulate knowledge and prone to lie to ourselves and others. But, that only results in not fitting in our human image, and albeit our shape, we can choose to be something that is not humane.
Other choices we make define what we grow inside our human bodies. We all want to belong to time and space, our content and context we were born. Gradually, the need to belong, silences our inner voice, make us become our content and context, another texture in the fabric of time and space. Moreover, to fit feels only natural. Look at your pictures and changing fashion in the 80’s and the 90's,you will understand. Imagine, you were born, in the roaring 20s, or the colourful 60’s. We would have similar outlooks, our hair, our clothing, our style. Is it fashion, or is it the colour of the time that makes you want to be a part? Maybe both, maybe not.
There is more to what we loose from our inner and unique human voices to our time and space. There is a dark side to social blending. Some who born in the human stature, turn into the most potent poison triggering conflict and waging war to protect their power. Some, on the other hand, choose even not to defend their rights if that will trigger further conflict. After all, there is always hope that today’s transgressor might choose to be a human again. So, there are people who choose not to respond but to act by silence or being non-responsive at moments of violence. Gandhi, is for one. He taught all, a person can still respond in the most human way possible by choosing to respond rather than to react.
Moments of debilitating conflict and especially wars, make humans rooted in their time and space. Humans loose their touch with the essence of shared human capacities in times of crisis. We need to be aware of what trauma and fear can make of the people. We need to fight our war not on the benches but inside our bodies, beginning with our inner voices, inside our homes, neighbourhood, and local communities.
Crisis happed, have been happening, and will happen, the question is how to ‘respond.’ If we are made into the image of humankind, what defines how to act one even in the times of crisis, or rather, especially in the times of crisis? Rather than subscribing to the idea of we are all animals, to explain conflict times, we need to remember that we were, have been, and are the humans. At least in our body image. So, why not make it a choice? Yes, we landed on this earth in the human form, so, the question is then, how to make it ours and claim it with our actions. How can we learn to practice being a human, and live in peace inside and outside of our bodies?
