define human

This clip is from one of my favorite movies, Wall-E.  The clip is entitled "Define Dancing" because, this is precisely what Wall-E and Eve do, dance. Obviously they do not touch hands, or sway side to side to a jazz musician, or intimately hold each other and slowly rock.  Swirling in outer space to a soundtrack all their own, they do dance together, by definition.

Defining Human might be someone's life work, the anthropologist, psychologist, psychiatrist and what's more, the physician and surgeon in their own way, too. We'll spend our whole lives figuring out the different definitions of what is Human, what it means to be Human, in all of our hairy, saggy skin, bloody, souls-hearts-minds kind of way.  Just when you think you have it down: it looks just like this, all tied up in a pretty striped package with the perfect bow that no one can undo tied on top - cancer happens, or death, or love, or a kiss, or unexpected friendship, and the world is suddenly turned upside down. So easily, so quickly. I wonder at our delicacy sometimes. Like we really might fold over into ourselves if we don't get ourselves out of bed, get dressed, brush our teeth, looking like we might be able to tackle the day. 

Then, I pass by a tree in full blossom, dripping from the rain as the clouds part ever so slightly above us all and I think that this is just about as glorious as life could get, and if I just stood here and drank it all up God would never be so pleased. Human, is Value. Human, is Created. In all of us He dwells, His image finger printed into every bone. 

If my words seem wacko or obscure as of late, welcome to inside of my head, this is it! Life is mysterious and mystical, and gritty and gross. When I start walking around like I am about to fly right off of this earth, God reminds me I am Human. In all its glory and shame, I am Human. Human is utterly important, and being defined as one is the highest honor. God came as one, after all, our vulnerable Jesus, wrapped up, unable to speak and flailing his arms like we all do. Paul says to walk as he walked. Well, isn't that just doable. In an impossible-I'm sinful-He's not-walking. The point is, we can walk like Him. Alan Hirsch calls us little Jesus's walking around, and we are, on our best and worst days. 

Today I'll get up and be Human, defined, by my inheritance that I didn't earn. Standing, knees wobbling, stepping with my arms outstretched like any one year old knows how, and a smile might even break across  this face, a smile that shows from the inside out I know how to walk. I know it, it's in me. Step, step, grab the table, step, step, step.