התמלול המלא של What Does It Mean to Be Human? | Season One Bonus Episode

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.052 --> 00:00:06.232 Welcome to the WODcast. 2 00:00:07.873 --> 00:00:14.495 For the first season, Sarah Ogervie, who is a professor of language and lexicography, has given us a word. 3 00:00:15.115 --> 00:00:19.296 And we are now going to ask all of our season one guests to define that word. 4 00:00:20.177 --> 00:00:22.718 And the word of season one is human. 5 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:27.739 Wonderful, isn't it? 6 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:30.680 Human. 7 00:00:32.727 --> 00:00:33.568 Beautiful. 8 00:00:34.168 --> 00:00:38.452 Wow, what a fundamental word for all of us. 9 00:00:38.992 --> 00:00:40.474 What does it mean to be human? 10 00:00:41.174 --> 00:00:47.680 Well, I suppose the obvious is a living, moving, sentient being who... 11 00:00:49.508 --> 00:00:52.009 I was going to say he's not an animal, but of course they are animals. 12 00:00:52.830 --> 00:01:09.839 A human is someone who have sympathy, who care about others as much as they care about themselves, who carry the values of being equal, being... 13 00:01:12.360 --> 00:01:14.282 Similar but different at the same time. 14 00:01:16.243 --> 00:01:19.666 I mean, for me, it's the highest level of describing anyone. 15 00:01:19.846 --> 00:01:31.075 Like, you know, if you want to call someone like they are human, that's for me like the highest level of goodness in people's like souls and life. 16 00:01:31.610 --> 00:01:43.495 Isn't it interesting that when you put an E after human, you suddenly have the word humane, which means merciful, thoughtful, caring, all kinds of good things. 17 00:01:44.075 --> 00:01:51.478 And you say, I appeal to your basic humanity, which doesn't mean your state of being human. 18 00:01:51.498 --> 00:01:54.219 It means your humaneness, doesn't it probably? 19 00:01:54.639 --> 00:01:57.640 Because if you appeal to someone's humanity, what are you appealing to? 20 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:21.502 the way they treat animals and the way we, you know, farm them, the abuse, the torture, the misery, the injustice, the horror that we inflict upon ourselves and the environment into which we were born, the way we pray upon the weak, the greed, the disregard for things, the... 21 00:02:22.082 --> 00:02:25.911 Is that what we mean, I appeal to your humanity? 22 00:02:26.012 --> 00:02:30.281 No, we appeal to some idea of being human that we hope for. 23 00:02:31.517 --> 00:02:37.920 I guess there are words that I would immediately associate that word with. 24 00:02:37.940 --> 00:02:41.242 And love would come to my mind. 25 00:02:41.702 --> 00:02:43.543 Empathy would come to my mind. 26 00:02:44.184 --> 00:02:45.684 But also connectivity. 27 00:02:46.385 --> 00:02:52.388 Just remembering that we are all part of the same circle of life. 28 00:02:53.088 --> 00:02:53.949 We're not above it. 29 00:02:54.149 --> 00:02:55.349 We're not outside of it. 30 00:02:56.570 --> 00:02:57.410 No one is small. 31 00:02:57.971 --> 00:02:58.991 No one is inferior. 32 00:02:59.051 --> 00:03:00.032 No one is superior. 33 00:03:00.687 --> 00:03:03.790 Okay, you know in a dictionary where I have multiple definitions, one, two. 34 00:03:04.630 --> 00:03:14.138 One, a mammal existing at the top of the existing ecosystem on the planet Earth. 35 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:20.344 Two, to think, feel, be, and exist. 36 00:03:20.364 --> 00:03:20.444 Two. 37 00:03:21.275 --> 00:03:39.115 I think being human, truly human, something that we touched on earlier is being a slave to your senses and not being afraid to go through the tirade of them. 38 00:03:42.375 --> 00:03:46.137 Happiness is instant and it can't be maintained forever. 39 00:03:46.837 --> 00:03:50.959 And it's just exactly the same as on the other side of the coin of sadness. 40 00:03:51.859 --> 00:03:57.922 That must be something that we need to learn to sit in and not always search for advice to exit. 41 00:04:00.623 --> 00:04:24.612 So I think being human is being able to dance between all those feelings and accept them and being able to be at the mercy of them and not search for... and then not be so frantic about it, sitting in those things and trying to understand them 42 00:04:25.619 --> 00:04:30.363 And then once you do understand them, you just realise that's a part of being human. 43 00:04:31.124 --> 00:04:44.056 I am struck recently about this notion that we are not more, as humans, we're not more important than any other part of creation. 44 00:04:44.316 --> 00:04:48.060 But to say we're all kind of 45 00:04:50.684 --> 00:04:55.795 the same is to flatten something out that I think is really important and is a mistake. 46 00:04:57.398 --> 00:05:01.546 Just like you might say there are many cells in the body, but like... 47 00:05:02.650 --> 00:05:28.691 neurons brain cells have more complexity and they do have a specific function but they're not more important than we can't live without the other ones either so humans place is like that i think in the in the scheme of creation and that's reflected in a in the biblical understanding that we are the stewards of of this creation and 48 00:05:29.170 --> 00:05:33.392 And actually we are part of a very delicate ecosystem. 49 00:05:34.673 --> 00:05:45.498 So when we destroy each other in the name of an ideology, that religion or this religion, we're also destroying nature and everything that we're connected with. 50 00:05:47.239 --> 00:05:54.642 The word human for me personally immediately brings to mind three levels of connections. 51 00:05:55.542 --> 00:05:59.583 One, human to human, beyond borders, beyond boxes. 52 00:06:01.604 --> 00:06:05.205 I find the renewal of those connections very important. 53 00:06:05.765 --> 00:06:12.568 The second is connecting with nature, with trees and rivers and stones and earth. 54 00:06:13.693 --> 00:06:14.273 And so on. 55 00:06:14.573 --> 00:06:16.994 And the third is, I don't know really what to call it. 56 00:06:17.034 --> 00:06:18.355 I don't have a name for it. 57 00:06:19.115