What does the face of humanity look like?

What does the face of humanity look like?

This is the question I am asking myself as I prepare to go forward and write a new chapter in my life. It is also a question that I believe we should all be asking ourselves as humanity itself prepares to face a future full of uncertainties, broken promises, unaccountable corporations and indeterminate governments. This is the question that I want my generation and future generations to ask, for as broken as the world that lies before us may seem, we are the ones who will bend down to mend its cracks.

In times of conflict, the question of humanity faces a daunting answer. This became apparent to me today during a discussion about the war in Afghanistan and the role of the red cross in delivering aid to citizens. Do we, as a country of Canadians, have the obligation to separate the enemy from the innocent when it comes to delivering aid? Or do we, as citizens of this world and members of the human race have the obligation to look past political ties and religious belief into the eyes of humanity in its most raw form? This is a question that I will personally wrestle with as we move forward and one that I do not have the answer to.

All I know at this point is that my generation faces the enormous task of trying to re-define humanity within the globalized framework of the 21st century. The 20th century saw the worst of humanity, many times over, and through that process I imagine that much faith in what our species is capable of was lost. Despite the conflicts that engulf the world today, I have faith that the brighter side of growing up in a globalized world positions the world's youth in a unique place - one that allows us to look back into the recent past, learn from the mistakes and move forward into a more hopeful place for the future. However, despite this sudden faith, I believe that we also face the challenges that come from living in an increasingly radicalized world - one in which reason is often eclipsed by passionate greed and an unstoppable faith in one group's interpretation of a higher power. Evermore, we face the challenge of peeling back the layers of society, religion and culture that often engulf the human being leaving veiled from her true human self, and thus vulnerable to the powers granted by discrimination.

As I prepare to move forward into the murky territory of the unknown future and as I prepare myself for the task of trying to understand who I am in relation to everyone else, I will constantly stop myself and remember to ask "what does the face of humanity look like?" One does not have to look towards the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Oil tycoons in the gulf of Mexico to struggle with the tensions bound up in this question. While these groups have more than enough requirements to fill the categorical definition of human destruction, we need not look further than our own back yards to answer this question.

When is the last time you stopped to have a conversation with your neighborhood homeless man? When is the last time that you stopped to look him in the eye, rather than walking casually by? And when is the last time you felt the tension between guilt, pity and sorrow when you decided to stop?

These are not easy questions to answer - nor is that conversation easy to have. Though on this rainy June day in Calgary I have hope that the sun will come back soon. I also have hope that humanity will remain resilient in the centuries to come. We will remain compassionate towards our fellow man and we will remain determined to create a better future for our children. Better not as in more progressed or more understood, but better in that we live in a world where any one can ask the question What does the face of humanity look like? and confidently answer that humanity looks like all of us, for wherever we came from and wherever we are going we always have the opportunity to reach out and shake our fellow man's hand.