To be a human means no more than having the biologically evolved genetic sequence for the species homo sapiens. It is nothing more special than any other species. True, we may have the most highly developed brains this planet has known, and have advanced abilities for technology, language, and imagination and ambitions. But it is common to take advantage of this and place ourselves on a level above all other living things.

Humans have created the most beautiful things, as well as the most destructive and evil things the world has ever seen. And I believe the horrible things outweigh the good. So in this regard, it might be said that to be human is to have the power to create wicked things at will, with the sole purpose of hurting others with no beneficial result.


We believe that this life and the present here on planet Earth is the most important thing that has ever happened. But no one takes time to realize that our lifespan and our small history of human beings is unfathomably minuscule on a time line of our galaxy and the infinite amount of other galaxies. To be human, though, is the ability to have this very thought. No other species can ponder the cosmos and question their existence like humans can. This is where humans separate themselves from other living things, but it does not make us greater in any regard.


“Some time ago I figured out with the help of some reading that I can’t recall now that, if it’s true that we’re all from the center of a star, everything atom in each of us from the center of a star, then we’re all from the same thing, and even a coke machine or a cigarette butt on the street in Buffalo are made out of atoms that came from a star. They’ve all been recycled thousands of times as have you and I. So, if that is true, and I am everywhere in the universe, in an extended sense, and therefore, it’s only me out here, so what is there to be afraid of? What is there that needs solace-seeking? Nothing. There’s nothing to be afraid of, because it’s all us."

-George Carlin

"Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."

-Carl Sagan


john romano