Biologically speaking the human is an animal, a mammal who is suited to life in the tropics where warm temperatures will not freeze the bare skin and a spontaneous food supply is ever present in the many fruits and vegetable matter. His large brain makes him a master with tools and he is clever to discover ways to make life easier and more comfortable. By such definition we are just another animal on planet earth.
What makes us unique and sets us apart in the animal kingdom is the culture we pass on to each new generation. This culture is preserved in the written languages of time and reviewed then passed on as the most precious gift we can bestow on our children. Without this education of human history we quickly revert to the animal we are in a short few generations. What makes us human instead of animal is the act of reading the past and then writing our own conclusions of how history and our own life experiences relate to each other.
As a food supply is secured with a scale of efficiency that allows ample leisure time the population grows, the standard of living increases, people have time and energy to pursue their passions and civilization blossoms with art, architecture, music, literature, and all kinds of human creations. This foundation of the basic comforts and security of family life sets the perfect stage for people to increase their educational pursuits to whatever heights they desire.
The spires of human excellence can be found in the records of all ages through history. These beautiful creations are the lasting testament of those who truly reached their human potential. They became truly human by doing the one thing they can do that no other species can. They read, then they wrote. Their writing revealed their thoughts and their thoughts now captured forever in print changes the next generation from a biological homo sapien into a human being if only this generation will read enough to understand the past.
Becoming Human is not an act that happens to us at birth and then we spend our days on earth trying to understand this awful trick nature has played on us. It is not an event of conception. Becoming Human is a choice we consciously make when we choose to join the ranks of the great thinkers and then we pen our own story. There are levels of how human we may become. Just as there are levels of how much excellence we may achieve.
