What is it to be human?

Profoundly, humans are diggers of wells. The best of who we are in any civilisation includes the will and skill to dig a well, to secure a supply of life-giving water for those we hold near and dear.

Around the world, wells take many forms, expressing our ingenuity and ability to work in harmony with our world, for the enrichment of all. We know how to reach down to the clear water, it’s in our bones, in our lore, in our books of learning. We recognise the clarity and refreshment of the well. We gather at the well. It is known as a sacred place, and it is the most common denominator, the watering hole.

But now there’s poison in many a well, put there by the hands of greed, ignorance, narcissism disguised as freedom. And the wells of deep connection? Those ones that demonstrate the abiding truths, that we are part of a web of creatures greater and smaller, and we depend upon them, as they do upon us? Those wells feel neglected.

A neglected well might silt up. In 2019, let’s carefully, with dignity and the honest effort it will ask of us, clear the silt, make true the wells, and let goodness flow. Why not? What else were you thinking to do, that could compare to the beauty of recommitting to being what civilised humans must be the be the best of us – let’s move some silt.