Je Suis Human

He said,
"No man is an island, entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent, 

A part of the main. 

If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less "

He said,
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, 

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee."

His name was John Donne, he wrote Meditations

Dear Sir,
Darling,
Allow me a moment to say that if you could ever come back to life
And venture to take a stroll among the living
If you stumbled into a typical household of this century
Or attended a gathering of any coterie
You'd surely take back your noble statement
When you see how every single one of us is living on their own island
And I'm pretty sure you'd realize the extent of your naivety
For elevating the human nature to your high standards of goodness and decency

I say, perhaps folks hastened to give, and hurried to feel

In the old times, when a believer was willing to share his bread with his 7th neighbor 

But today, my good sir
We keep human bonding to the bare minimum advised by social norms 

Only mourn for a stranger when our civil depection is at stake

And this is quite evident in its simplest forms
At بيت العزا (a funeral)
My good sir, ever been in this situation where a distant relation passes away
And your household receives flocks of mourners offering their condolences?

You are just standing in a corner
Unable to shed the tears expected of you
Because you can't fathom the extent of your loss
And it's just so overwhelming how all these strangers sound more bereft than you do
How you'd hear the whines and see the tears but when you look closer
Their gazes would hit you as dull and austere
And you try to appreciate their nice gestures but deep down you'd feel pestered
Because you can't divine whether these good folks are here because they are genuinely sorry for you
Or whether they are just too good at pretending to be clement
And if it isn't so, why would they ever feel the need to display a sentiment
That isn't real
Nay, at such moments of great peril,

Why would you take the time to evaluate someone else's sincerity of emotions

When you can't even fake a squeal ?

It so appears, we are an apathetic generation
We would rather send a text than call a friend on their birthday
Yet we venture to transcend situational boundaries
By displaying our protest to an unjust fatality half way around the globe
When sometimes
We don't even care to know the names of the casualties
And we can sleep content at night
Because we think we've paid our dues to humanity
When we've made a sympathetic Hashtag trend
That we've fulfilled our share of charity
When we've unified our display pictures in support of some cause
Or when we liked a philanthropic page on facebook
We all agree that technology has made displays of solicitude so commonplace

Except that the dead don't mind how many retweets their bloody photos get

We can only pretend to care when it's not our skin that is cut

We only dare to communicate our deepest emotions ,share our brimful compassion
With a bunch of strangers that can't judge us aught
Don't we all pretend to sympathize with fellow humans we haven't met
When we aren't even able to connect with folks dining with us at the same table?
So with all due respect ,Sir Donne
You are a big fool
And it pains me to differ
But every man IS a continent of its own
We don't actually feel deprived when some sorry soul in Europe is diminished
In reality, a little goblin is growing pests at the back of everyone's mind

"You don't know them, therefore they don't matter"

And the funny part is ,we don't even realize the absurdity of it all
When we grab a newspaper ,only to find that Kim Kardashian's behind took over the front page
While the massacre of a few innocent souls was pushed way to the back
Though you may argue that the logic here is to keep people entertained first
And informed next
Because looking at a body ain't appealing
When it's not naked
But look, I'm not here to criticize, ladies a gents
We are all humans in the end, with built-in flaws and dents
Convicted of the same crime
Of basically living our lives in selective oblivion
I'm just here to ask you whether it is really so gruesome
To live happily, ignorantly, basely, contently,
When we know that someone else is suffering in another part of this vast world ?
And that perhaps this happiness is built on someone else's misfortunes
Someone else's tears, and sweat
Someone else's time and blood
Someone else squalor and twit ?
While we keep living, and breathing,
Preaching our fake humanitarian slogans
As we cower behind the excuse that it isn't our fault
The way this world is wretched and unfair

And it's true; ain't nobody's fault that the other side of the moon is so drear

So dear sisters and brothers of the human race, this is a cordial invitation :

Not To Behead the last buds of our virtue
But to embrace our Gnostical Turpitude;

To shamelessly cover our eyes, and plug our ears

So we won't hear of the morbidity of our reality
I invite you all

To be ignorant human beings, without a spec of indignity