ON BEING HUMAN

I am a human being, a unique unit of life at a particular moment in time and in a particular place in space. I am one of billions and billions of other units of life living at this moment – other humans, as well as dogs, mosquitos, ants, fish, and even maple trees and rose bushes – each one a living entity. Each was created at an earlier moment from other life, having evolved to our present forms as a result of successive creations over millions and millions of years. Each is a part of a vast family of living things that we call life. I stand in awe to be a part of it.

A basic characteristic of life seems to be a drive for survival. Over the millennia, in spite of catastrophes that have destroyed individual lives, life itself has never been snuffed out but has continued to evolve. In addition, each unit of life seems to have a drive for individual survival, whether is it a plant or a bacterium or a bear or a human. Very rudimentary forms of awareness or consciousness have developed even in the “lower” forms of life that help provide protection or assist in providing nutrients, both needed for survival of the individual. But eventually each individual dies – but life continues.

As a human, I too have all the drives for survival that other life has. But something more has evolved in me. I not only have a consciousness or awareness of my surroundings, but I also have a self-awareness – an awareness of me! That is an astounding development. To be able to think about myself as an individual in space-time, to even ask the question, “Who am I?” To be able even to begin to comprehend the universe and my place in it!

Is not this the beginning of the experience of that “something more” that we have named, “GOD”?

Loren Bullock
March 3, 2009