Humanities Essay Written At Age Twelve:
What does it matter that humans beings
strive to create a world of beauty, storytelling, and order? Has mankind fully
succeeded in creating the best of all possible worlds? Why or why not?
Everything done on this Earth remains.
Humans always leave their mark, some just bigger than others. Everything we do
matters in a sense; the sense that everything has its effects. We create art to
prove our own beauty in hopes to gain the desire that we yearn for.
Storytelling was not only made for the satisfactory of others, but more for the
confidence in ourselves. Order was set not as a brave act, but in the act of
fear and the reassurance of safety. These prospects of humanity have one main
aspect in common; one of the greatest human qualities that we don’t even
realize lies within us: We fear oblivion.
Humans dream of the thought of
living forever, but we are mortal never created to be immortal. We fear that
everything we do in our lives will be forgotten as soon as we leave this world.
We know that our body will never be immortal, we’ll never be perfect, but we pray
our soul will live for eons, which leads to the formula embedded in our brains:
The more dreams we achieve that skim close to perfect, the bigger the mark you
leave on this Earth. The bigger the mark you make, more will remember. The more
who remember, the longer our souls will prosper. The longer our souls thrive,
the longer we are able to avoid evanescence.
Dying is easy for those who have
reached the top of Maslow’s pyramid of needs, because they have the belief that
they have done everything expected from them in life. Or do they? As humans, we
are known to have the instinct to do beyond what is expected. Arts, storytelling,
and order just reflect that. We created these in order to do beyond the
conventional.
Arts are our beauty, one of the only
kinds of man-made beauty there is. We use the arts to please, to sustain, and
to prove the beauty of the soul within us that has every right in goodness to
live longer than our sinful human selves. The canals of Venice are swimming
with unforgotten contributors, always to be missed. To find yourself on these
canals is a whisper of what your soul needs to breathe in order to thrive as
long as Venice has itself. Things made by man are not capable of lasting
forever, no matter how beautiful, but that beauty is intended, and will, remain
in the life of humans and ever after. Sometimes beauty provides us reassurance that
our work can lead to greater things, that our beauty is never completely gone.
Storytelling was created to capture
our lives, to track our progress as people, and to boast of potency we hope
will last for generations to come. Through stories we gratify others, and
through this we increment towards the confidence we further need to push onward
in life. Film has made stars, such as Charlie Chaplin and George Méliès, in
which shine brightly for those stuck on Earth to look up upon as a role model
of human greatness. This is an act of benevolence that everyone is capable of
achieving, but only few prevail.
We desire to order over chaos not as
an act of bravery, but in the act of fear for our own safety, for though we are
selfless, we are undeniably selfish. We pass laws to last as well as the
everlasting feeling of security. Nevertheless, laws are broken all the time for
others needs of essence, and are punished and held example for what not to do
in life.
For our needs of matter and meaning
we have created these three terms: beauty, storytelling, and order. For when
before humanity has there ever been a mention of beauty? Since when before
humanity has there ever been whispers of stories and legends? Since when before
humanity has there been order and punishment? None of it existed before us, and
on Earth, none of it will exist after us. We created the essence of time, and
in that, our own fear itself. This makes everything done seem meaningless, but
it’s not. Meaning is only measured through our lives and what our experiences
played in them. Therefore our experience is full of meaning, meaning of all the
living, dead, and forever alive. Humanity has created a world as close to
perfect as it can acquire, but the perfect world lies where our souls go next.
When our time comes, we want people
to forget the erroneousness that we’ve committed. We want to leave behind a
reason to be missed.
