“Only Human” is no Excuse For Being Less

And it’s not good enough in an existential crisis.

Maybe it’s the atheist in me, but I have always felt the only human excuse is a bullshit response to human weakness.

I’m only human, after all, Don’t put the blame on me.

Rag ‘n’ Bone Man. Lyrics: “Only Human.”

It’s only human, you know that it’s real So why would you fight or try to deny the way that you feel?

Jonas Bros. Lyrics: “Only Human.”

Humans have vices, sins, failings.

Call them what you will. The rot of war and environmental destruction, cannot set in without the complicity of human beings.

But we also have honour, dignity, the ability to know right and wrong, and the power to decide. We can recognise the difference between destructive or creative, mundane and miraculous. We have the power to love and the power of compassion.

Leaving the world to a ‘higher power’ has got us nowhere; not politically, spiritually, socially, or environmentally. When we try to improve, but fail or falter, whether as individuals, a society or a nation, our humanity is used as an excuse. Then we are only human, without the endurance to see hard decisions through to completion, or at least give them our very best effort.

What if we developed a new set of lyrics for our existence?

I am human, after all, I take the blame.

Surrendering to an inevitable frailty, ignorance or victimhood must not be the final response for humanity on this planet.

If we are, as I suspect, entirely alone in our existence, then we need to step up, not step aside, because if not us, then who?

We should acknowledge the strength in ourselves.

There are people in all areas of life that exist with honour and bravery every day. For some, just putting one foot after the other, for their families, is bravery. Refusing to be broken by another individual is courageous. Easing someone else’s burden is an act of heroism.

Humankind can be the higher power.

We have the innate ability to protect, endure, embrace, sense, empathise, forgive, encourage, learn and create, and many more. And the strongest of all super powers possessed by humans, love and compassion, can lift us to small and large victories every day.

Aim for the miraculous.

We must stop framing that which is hard in terms of human frailty, in terms of an accepted wisdom of pre-ordained human failure.

We must take the blame, take responsibility, and take action because we are here and we are human, and the miraculous can be ours to create.

The above article was inspired by this, from Jessica Wildfire: