We've grown accustomed to the instruction, when submitting online forms, to Prove you're not a robot, which effectively translates as Prove you're a human being. Do something which separates humans from robots - in these cases, ticking a box, though occasionally we're asked to take the advanced test, and pick out photos containing cars or boats or people. But yesterday, subscribing to a Caritas newsletter, I encountered a very different command: to confirm my humanity...
Confirm humanity... How appropriate, I thought with a little chuckle, that it's Caritas which should ask me to do this! And humanity... How intriguing - and exciting - that the very same word which means humankind - human beings collectively - also means all the qualities and values which make up the best of being human. Compassion, consideration, loving kindness, goodness, magnanimity and kindness... all these and more are somehow gathered up and deployed whenever we use this word, humanity, and its sister-word, humane. These qualities are the best of us, but also intrinsic to us.
And it occurs to me that somewhere in the deep, long, long ago recesses of human and linguistic history, people must have been sufficiently optimistic about inherent human kindness and love, that they deployed the collective word for humans to signify this goodness. And we retain this optimism, despite all the cruelty, violence and brutality we have seen throughout the ages; we still believe enough in our innate goodness to call this cruelty inhumanity - not human. Though whether we live our humanity, and show it forth, is, of course, another matter...
Yesterday I confirmed my humanity with a tick; very easily done. But today... Today, like any other day, will be full of calls and opportunities to confirm my humanity; to confirm that I am a woman of heart, called to Love and to love. Today, what will I do, how can I be, to confirm my humanity to everyone I encounter...? And you; how will you confirm yours?
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