Part of being human is having free will to make our own decisions.
Repeat that phrase until it starts to sink in...
We are ALL human!
We are ALL human!
Yet something that has been lost in our perceptions of, behaviors towards, and treatment of other humans is that there are no absolutes.
Good and bad are artificial constructs, and humans are living organisms.
Part of reality is acknowledging that there are no absolutes, yet our society has become focused on polarization and characterization.
The "ugly truth" is that our society's ability to interact on a personal level has died an unnoticed death.
Instead we use snap judgments, appearances, and labels to place people in boxes so that we no longer have to discover who they really are and how they fit into the world.
Don't believe me? Let's play a game of Family Feud!
Take out a sheet of paper and list the first ten words that come to mind for each of the following phrases:
Homeless Person Recovering Addict Convicted Felon
If you were truly honest with yourself, the ten words you listed were ugly and limiting.
Nothing you listed would possibly allow any person in any of those groups to be productive and successful.
Each of those three phrases is used by our society to put a member of that group down at the bottom of a well (figuratively).
Then our subsequent actions become the water source that fills the well and drowns them.
This is what I refer to when I use the word "absolute".
It is easy to quantify a person by a label, and that has become the norm in our society.
Fast food, next day delivery, snap judgments, instant gratification - these are the hallmarks of who we have become.
More to the point, it is far easier to dismiss a person by quickly tossing them into a category that you have already tried and convicted in the court of your mind.
We are ALL human!
Which means that making snap judgments (based on physical appearance, behaviors, or anything else a person does) is no longer acceptable.
We are ALL human!
But in order to become more human ourselves, we need to take the time to learn who a person really is rather than characterizing them in a way that denies their individuality.
We are ALL human!
Don't be an ambassador for "the ugly truth" - revise how you characterize and treat others.
BE A HUMAN!
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