WHAT IS A MAN?

That’s the question posed by the song “My Way”.

As a human creature, is feeble, subject to death at any moment, but in the meantime, someone who wants to be recognized for who he is, no matter what he has or not achieved in life, no matter which is the environment in which he is living.

Man is someone who thinks, feels, proclaims things, understands, is passionate for a woman, politics or a sports team. But also discuss, fights, sometimes even looks for being controversial, and when his ideas are exhausted goes directly to the personal attack, verbally or physically.

He tends to be quiet –in general— but there is the type of man who is essentially violent, who appeals to violence almost immediately, thinking that violence gives him preponderance or respect from others.

Man is also someone who develops beliefs in many things. From superstition to witchcraft, to extraterrestrials, to ghosts, and it is difficult to persuade that he is wrong, that his beliefs are nonsensical, totally irrational and absurd. He needs to believe in someone or something.

The worst thing is to believe in someone, a man as he is because it is easy to become betrayed or let down. Something that happens generally with politicians but that also could happen with religious leaders.

Man is essentially left to his own devices. 

That is the most important side of him. He has to give sense to his life. He has to get respect from the others, he has to be trusted, and above all, he has to learn how to love, and love to the point of self-sacrifice. Because only loving all the way, he becomes really a man.

And all that I say about man applies equally to woman, the other human being, because both together make up humanity.

Milton W. Hourcade