I posted this up on my status on Facebook as I think about what humanity and human means in today’s society.

“It is not what you are, I know what you are. Who are you? That is what I want to know.”

What we have is a war between the what and the who.  The last century or two, we have explored the what that defines us. Now we know what defines us, but who are we?

What are we? Many will go to what defines who they are; yet they do not hold that identity fully, because the what is defined by society; unnatural influences opposed to natural processes. Nature is what.

Are humans animals? Yep. Are humans the top predators?  Yep. Are humans close cousins with the chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and other monkeys and apes?  Ummm. Yep. Are humans defined by their environment? Yep. All that is nature.

What is this what am I talking about?  I can see a black person, a short person, someone who may be Asian, a person speaking foreign language, or the what that has been ‘defined’ by society but really is by nature, natural. I can know that what and accept the person for that, because by nature we are here at anytime, anywhere, and anyhow. That is how nature is.  It is in the human psyche to corrupt that what and pretend that the what is not normal.

So I am done with the what of you. Now I ask you… who are you? The very nature of your what develops and refines the who made of you. The who is more confusing than the what, I tell ya. Who is defined by external stresses, yet is innate.

Nature cannot define the who because it has given you the blueprint and through natural process, has created you with the elements you have been given. So with this in mind and depending in which part of life you are in now, how do you define your who?  Some people know their who when they are toddlers and some do not find out until they are adults.

Sadly, the who is often corrupted, by what is unnatural, yet natural of humans to do.

Did YOU define YOUR who? Or did someone else define it FOR you? That needs to be your first question. We need to celebrate what we have learned, unlearn the stereotypical attitudes provided by society, and start to embrace what makes us what is a part of our who.

Let’s say my what is: human, yet I am a woman, mother, deaf, wife, short and chubby, brown haired, blue eyed, intelligent (with a thread of common sense, typical) and I probably have some Neanderthal genes in me. So who am I: thinker, bilingual/cultural, big picture type of person, not so huggable, and a few other characteristics best left to those who know me.  Nature has given me my what, my life experience and values are a part of my who, so if I put them together, what do I get?

(shyly) ohhh. me! Me! ME!

So going back to nature versus nurture; what society is ignorant about is the what and they keep on teaching the whos, who do not know who they are and are bound by societal rules that those who are not who they say what they are thus breaking every possible natural rule there is just because they do not like who and what they are.

I keep on going back to the Tower of Babel story…quite a lot for the last few years. What does this story mean? What does it mean to the psyche of what and who humans are? Why is it bugging me? Homogeneousness of Earth is what scares me the most.

I do know what you are and what I am. Do I know who you are?