What Is The Essence Of The Human Experience?

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.