The Perks of Being Human

Being human is the most complex, confusing thing there is, isn't it? It should be, it encompasses everything else we do; by being human we're allowed to experience those other complex and confusing things.

Being human, it also seems, is a massive contradiction.

In video games, by principle, if I have the choice to make my character something other than human, I do. I'm human in real life, so if I wanted to do something as a human, I'd do it myself. I also never choose humans because often when compared to other species, fictional though they are, humans do not stand up to the others. Humans, more often than not, and what indeed makes them the "human" race, has one characteristic the other races never do: the not only ability, but likelihood of failing in the face of the final task.

Humans are weak.They give in, they collapse, they fail. It's a classic story in most novels. They have "the human flaw," where they fail to do what is needed because, very purely,of their emotions. Be it love, hate, depression, or, perhaps the most powerful, the feeling of  nothing at all, humans are constantly driven from the correct decision by what they feel and these things that overcome their strength to make the right decision.

And I mean this beyond the realm of video games, fantasy worlds, or even in our imaginations. General life choices are made wrong because of a loved one, or out of spite, or because they're too hurt to do otherwise, or because they're too hurt to do anything at all. Relationships, jobs, love, passions, they all push us to do what we want rather than what may be the best for our well-being. Emotions and passion destroy us and hold us back from reaching our potential.

Isn't it odd, then, that emotions and passion are also what makes being human so beautifully amazing?

Isn't there some satisfaction, even if it's buried far under the pain, in feeling pain? Isn't that feeling- painful as it is- so pure and so true that it almost adds to the pain to feel so truthfully? And at the same time, isn't that a wonderful feeling? Isn't amazing to be able to feel that kind of pain? Isn't it more difficult to escape self-pity and leave painful memories behind because they bring such raw emotion to you, and isn't the aura that raw emotion wraps you in almost comforting?

This is the reason for sane madness. When you love so truthfully, so purely, there is no feeling that comes close. Then, when that love fails but doesn't vanish, what else can be done? We can't expect to get so high and fall with the same impact as if we never left the ground. And in that heartbreak, the passion is almost more than when it was love. But there's no outlet, no one to give it to, and no way to express it. We have our minds, but it is overrun with hollow, and at the same time, bursting emotion. And we wallow in it, because it does feel so good to feel. And so our greatest weakness, that which drives us from doing the right thing, also gives us comfort.

But I don't think I need to point out the damage this does to anyone who has experienced this, nor do I need to point out the problems with making bad decisions for this feeling. I would like to point out the true perks of being human, for pain is not the only emotion that comes so purely. We are capable of feeling passion through things that, in their literal form, should be nothing more than patterns or words, yet they are more.

Music, I will say to the death, is the most passionate expression of human being we have. Artists who fuel their own emotions and passion into what they do are capable of copying their emotions and giving them to every person who listens, thus giving listeners raw, pure emotion to experience for themselves. Every instrument, every melody, rhythm, and interaction between instruments and voice is capable of passing through you and exploiting passion within you. And it is so human to understand on this level, through music. This is the same reason fables- then books- now movies- have been so important. We are capable of feeling and investing in characters that- fictional as they are- make us feel human and make us feel the passions of their experiences.

And, so it seems, being human is not necessarily a contradiction; what brings us comfort- passion- does not necessarily have to hurt us. There are things, from others and through our own experiences, in which we can feel passionate and experience raw, pure emotion as only a human can, where it envelopes us completely. So do not look to feel through pain, but know, when it does come, that there is something wonderful about being able to feel such pain at all.