Responsiblity of the Heart: Becoming Human Again

Becoming Human Again

People who have genuinely experienced betrayal, have first put their hearts “out there” and afterwards will guard themselves. However, since they’ve already had a taste of being “out moving”, they will try again. This is learning.

Emotion moves us – forward, backwards, up, down and side to side. Without it, there is no progress. I’m not suggesting that everyone should run around with their emotions flying in the wind, but keeping one’s heart aired out regularly is a necessary part of being a humane human. Remember, humans without humanity aren’t worth anything; the word is the definition of what it means to be human. We ARE responsible for one another. We are responsible for the world around us. Each individual affects the whole because each individual is part of the whole. Not in the abstract, but in the literal and visceral.

Human beings who are humane, are empathic. They do not come first – others do. But the world, twisted up as it is now, tells us we must put ourselves, not others, first. The proper nature of human relationships is about the heart and that means it’s not about “me”; it is about “you”. The more we allow this, the less there is of “me” and “you” and the more there is of “us” and “we”: We begin to acknowledge the connections to everything and as that happens, the less we do without.