be better than Narcissus

 

Humans, at their best

what is the best of what makes us human?

in an apocryphal story,

Margaret Mead is said to have argued

that we humans differentiated from our animal cousins,

not because we invented tools,

but rather because we found the way

to take care of others of our kind,

the evidence?

a human skeleton from thousands of years ago,

a person who had recovered from a broken femur,

thus revealing a profound reorientation of values,

from self-centered to altruistic,

our cousins, the deer and the bear, could not find a way forward

into healing a bone, this argument goes,

so that humans found a way to hold and help our fellows,

until they healed back into functionality,

I would add corroborating evidence of flowers and other gifts left in graves

for countless years, demonstrating the vitality of our ties to the other,

there is a profound disconnect with such values these days

when so many in power deny the importance of anyone else to who we are,

this Margaret Mead story surfaced during the Covid-19 pandemic

when isolation reduced our connectivity,

I am drawn to noticing deaths,

to appreciating the life of another,

for life is not just of the selfish:

it is also of the bonding that reaches out to the other, in love,

what makes us best is when love enlarges us to care,

and to act effectively upon that impulse,

when we take care of "the least of these, our brethren,"

when we still connect with the dead,

even when we cannot touch,

we can still feel and act upon the connections,

we can be better than to be as Narcissus.

by Henry H. Walker

July 17, ‘25