Back in my ten years, I took a scociology summer course because I needed a senior social science course to graduate. And being the academic keener that I was, I figured it that taking a "easy" course would leave me more room for harder classes during the year.
Not that I enjoyed physics in my senior year...
During this sociology course, we had to define what it is that makes humans human. The teacher provided the answer of culture.
But I wondering if it's something more emotive than that.
Animals create social structure, insects create civilizations and there are numerous misunderstood ways of being in the greater animal kingdom.
And as much as I agree that animals have feelings and memories, I think only humans have heart ache.
Tancred is in the hospital right now, perhaps on his last machine driven breaths. He's a wonderful man who plays in the SCA. He's vibrant, driven, funny and much beloved. And right now, I can viscerally feel the heartache of his wife, Rosie, as she sits at his bedside willing him to get better.
Truly, is it that kind of pain that makes us human?
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