Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Of Human Worth

It always amazes me the value we put on people. Some we can't live without. Others, we wouldn't piss on if they were on fire. Some we convince ourselves mean the world to us,  we are in love with them, or at least we should. So I wonder, how do we determine the value of someone? How do we gauge another human and decide, we love or hate them?

It isn't all about actions. Sure, someone kills your dog you most likely will hate them. But what about love? If someone saves your dog, most won't fall in love with said Savior. So what clicks in the human head, the human heart, over time to make us feel for someone? Literature and personal experience are filled with friends or lovers who loved deeply only to turn around and hate. Why? Stories vary but what in us connects and then destroys? We are the only species to actively love or hate. Animal lovers, it's obedience and need fulfillment, not love. I feel it's safe to say the map of the human heart has many light and dark sections. We don't always know what will transport us to either section. Have you loved so strongly to feel you would do anything, everything, only to be wronged and hate with such acid and vitriol that you want that person to vanish? It's an extreme to be certain. But we feel. It makes us both animal and divine; both angel and demon.
      But my question remains: what determines love or hate? Why don't we all love the same person? Is it chemical? Personal life experiences? Perhaps pheromones? It's feasible that it is a mix of all, put into the human cauldron, and poof...love/hate is born. Or are we taught what is loveable and  loathsome? The nature of humanity and the spark that is emotion is confusing and fascinating.
         I realize I am no closer to understanding humanity or its base emotions. I do not understand how love fuels acts of great courage or hate brews deeds of incalculable cruelty. Or the gray areas of loving another yet treating them in a manner which will breed hatred in them. How complex and disastrous is the human heart. I know only this: there is no black or white, only the gray mire between.
          Value each other. Love thy friend and never let them go. Hate thy enemy and never let them close. Woe to the fiend that is both.

No comments:

Post a Comment