human

Today in my globalization class, we were talking about an article which argued that identity is changing from local or national to civilizational. In other words, that my identity is no longer as much about being Washingtonian (or Thai) or American as it is being Western. Which got me thinking.

I realized today that my sense of identity as a human is becoming more and more strong. Not as Christian, or white, or American, or male, or Western, just as a human. I'm happy with that, because that is the identity that I want to be most aware of when I encounter others. It's not that their race or ethnicity or religion or gender or economic status are unimportant, but those qualities necessarily create divisions in a way that human doesn't. I don't want to be "color blind," but I don't want to be color-blinded either, where I lose track of a person because I'm so caught up in these descriptions of them and so caught up in dividing people along different lines.

Incidentally, if someone asked me what it means to be human, fallen and sinful is not how I would respond. When I think of someone as human, the point isn't that they're messed up somehow. I'm beginning to wonder if humanity's sin is a lot more important to humanity than it is to God. Then again, maybe I'm just confusing myself with God.