Learning to be human
A while ago I met a flying fox who had raised by humans after being rejected by both her mother and by the group of flying foxes at the zoo where she was born.
What struck me about her was that she never learned to fly.
It's in her genes to fly, of course; she's a flying fox. But that's not enough. You have to learn these things, which entails having someone to show you how it's done. When there's no one around you who knows how to do it, then you won't.
And I thought: the same is true for many things, and for many species, including humans. Just like it's in a flying fox's nature to fly, there are things that are in our nature because we're human beings. But even though it's in our genes, we never learned to truly be human.
What things are those, exactly? I'll leave that up to you, but just consider how we are living today, and whether any of us would be able to survive in the world of 5,000 years ago.
What struck me about her was that she never learned to fly.
It's in her genes to fly, of course; she's a flying fox. But that's not enough. You have to learn these things, which entails having someone to show you how it's done. When there's no one around you who knows how to do it, then you won't.
And I thought: the same is true for many things, and for many species, including humans. Just like it's in a flying fox's nature to fly, there are things that are in our nature because we're human beings. But even though it's in our genes, we never learned to truly be human.
What things are those, exactly? I'll leave that up to you, but just consider how we are living today, and whether any of us would be able to survive in the world of 5,000 years ago.