Human Being is a Verb and Not Just a Noun

I once knew a girl who sang for a church I used to attend. One Sunday she went up to sing and she sang off-key and people laughed. After that day she never sang in the church again. I went up to her one day and ask her why she stopped singing and she said, she just couldn’t face the shame. I said to her, ‘You cannot give up on singing because you made a mistake once. Come on! you are Human, Making mistakes is a sure thing.’ Well, I’d love to say that she listened to me and started singing again but that would be a lie. That girl never sang again.

I have heard of people who committed suicide because they failed their final exams. So many people beat themselves up over the slightest things. When did being human ever mean being Perfect?

I know you are probably wondering ‘where is she going with this?’ Stay with me!

Human Being as a Noun

The word ‘Human’ on its own means Man or Homosapien. The word ‘Being’ which means Nature, is the present participle of the verb Be — Action. When the words ‘Human’ — man and ‘Being’ — nature, are combined, it becomes The nature of man or man’s nature. This is a noun.

Human Being as a verb

Now since ‘Human’ is the name of Man and ‘Being’ is a present participle of the verb Be, we could combine the two words and we’d get ‘Be Human’ or ‘Being Human’, which is a process, and an action.

Here’s what I’m saying

There are character traits, behavioural patterns and certain phenomenon that are natural to humans. For instance,

humans;

• love
• lie
• bleed
• steal
• succeed
• fail
• save
• kill

I can go on and on but all I'm trying to say is that you do what you do because you are human.

• If you see a girl you like, it's natural to have romantic feelings for her whether or not you are supposed to because you are human and humans fall in love
• When you promise to help someone and you failed to do so, you are being human because humans disappoint.
• If you get called an offensive name, you’d get angry and probably retaliate because you are human. anger is natural to humans.
• when you are in the kitchen cutting some onions with a knife and you cut yourself, you’d bleed, wouldn’t you? Bleeding is something that’s normal to humans so when you bleed, you are being human.
• When you are so sure you nailed that exam but the results come in and it turns out you flunked it, You’d get sad and little discouraged, wouldn't you? Well, humans fail and you are human. Do you get my point?

But do you know what else is human? Choice!

Yes, all humans have a choice to be whatever type of human they want.

• If you see a girl you like and you aren't supposed to have romantic feelings for her, maybe because shes married or maybe it just isn't right, you have a choice to either act on your feelings or ignore them.
• When you promise to help someone, you have a choice to keep to your word and if its something that's out of your control, you have a choice to make up for it.
• If someone calls you an offensive name, you have a choice to ignore them and not let it get to you.
• When you are in the kitchen cutting onions, you have a choice to be more careful.
• When you have an exam to write you have a choice to study harder and even when you fail, you have a choice to take that as a motivation to be better and do better. Do you see where I'm going with this?

In as much as we are Human Beings who are simply being human, we have a choice. A choice to be kind, a choice to give and a choice to love. I’d say, we have a choice to be better Humans.

Thanks for reading. You are the reason I write.