I want to be a human too!

"The New Humanism." What a perfect title. I couldn't help but be intrigued by this article in the NYTimes by David Brooks. He briefly discusses the science now supporting the idea that we are not just reasonable, logical beings (which many of us could probably know from personal experience). Our highest achievement is not pure rationality and the lack of all emotion, but the balance between passion and reason--our connectedness to each other and our understanding of the world based on the intertwining of fact and feeling. We can't ignore the human and social context of our lives. I love this:

"we are not individuals who form relationships. We are social animals, deeply interpenetrated with one another, who emerge out of relationships."

And listen to all of these lovely words he introduces us to:

Attunement: the ability to enter other minds and learn what they have to offer.

Equipoise: the ability to serenely monitor the movements of one’s own mind
and correct for biases and shortcomings.

Metis: the ability to see patterns in the world and derive a gist from complex situations.

Sympathy:

the ability to fall into a rhythm with those around you and thrive in groups.

Limerence:This isn’t a talent as much as a motivation.
The conscious mind hungers for money and success, but the unconscious mind hungers for those moments of transcendence
when the skull line falls away and we are lost in love for another, the challenge of a task or
the love of God.

Basically, I want to have attunement, equipoise, metis, sympathy and limerence. I want to use my heart and my head when I view the world and other people. I want to balance logic and passion; skill and emotion; reason and feeling. These are integral aspects of who we are. We cannot see accurately without taking into account both the emotional and rational aspects of the world around us.

And I think these qualities will be central to creating policies and practices (personally, locally, nationally and internationally) that will address issues properly; by viewing the world not as a statistical problem to be solved, but as a collective humanity that must be united in bringing peace and prosperity to all.

(At least, that is how I like to see things in my probably slightly more emotional and less logical mind... oh well. I'm still working on it.)