Infinite Shades of Grey: Unraveling the Humanities

The humanities can mainly be described as the study of how people perform and document the human experience. However, the very beauty about the humanities are their unique quality of being able to be described in multiple ways. Although I have my own perception of what the humanities are, I went ahead and dug deeper for more answers from credible sources. From articles to videos to even three interviews I arranged, I was able to successfully incorporate a variety of perspectives. The humanities, I believe, are pathways that allow us to stay in touch with the world. They help us understand our past, present, and future and how our actions can influence later generations. By giving the humanities a chance, we can also learn what makes us human and how to continue improving all while reinforcing the growth of the humanities themselves. As I mentioned before, I arranged three interviews in which I asked three of my friends what they think the humanities are and why should we study them. Ashley Lopez, a 19 year old New World School of the Arts college student, believes that humanities are “the study of people’s history and culture.” Coming from Mexican, Cuban, and Spanish descent, she also believes that humanities are “an expression of culture, psychological development, and a method to learn from our mistakes through history.” Her beliefs are similar to the second person I interviewed. Born in Nicaragua, Emerson Perez and his family migrated to the United States in search of a better environment and life for his family. Now, as a 32 year old part time Biology teacher, Interact Service Club advisor and full time father, he learned to define the study of humanities’ purpose as “a way of learning about humans and what makes us who we are.” “To have roots”, he also commented, “is to have shared history. And we must share that history with others.” After analyzing their replies, I was fascinated at how most commentators from the New Hampshire Humanities Council video described the humanities similarly to what my friends think of them. Most replies revolve around the concept of relating to people, studying the world, and learning from the human experience. As for the last person I interviewed, she actually happened to summarize my notion of how I perceive the humanities. Andrea Hernandez, a Cuban, 18 year old film major, recently moved from Miami to South Hadley, Massachusetts where she will be studying at Mount Holyoke College. She states that the humanities “are all the ways that people express themselves creatively, whether through music or the arts or any other medium. They work to bring us together while allowing us to see the differences within our cultures and customs.” Generally, the humanities remind us that despite our differences, there is a universality in the way we see and process life around us. In the article, “On Studying the Humanities”, author David Behling focuses primarily on the importance of learning about how people “in earlier ages or faraway places created the world we live in” today. It is not just about studying people psychologically or biologically, it is about thoroughly searching the past’s every nook and cranny to find the answers to what being human means. Often, the humanities are seen as just a black and white concept when in reality they are a vast, grey area that has yet to be fully explored. This grey area will keep developing more shades of grey for as long as people continue to interpret the humanities in different ways. Behling also claims that “we inevitably end up learning about more than simply past or distant cultures” because humanities contain multitudes of life. The Minnesota Humanities Council’s video also describes these multitudes as branches that “combine to form a foundation of human interaction and connection.” As explorers of life, we must continue to initiate more expeditions into the unknown in order to find the answers to the questions we have about our existence. Human beings are like mirrors, constantly reflecting what they are taught, and as life branches out and evolves, it is only inevitable to say that we do as well. John Horgan, author of “Why Study Humanities?” depicts the humanities as a reminder that “every single human is unique, different than every other human…in unpredictable ways” but what we fail to acknowledge about the human race is our complexities. We should not only embrace who we are now but where our roots lie; we are the windows of humanity and the only way to remain so intact with ourselves is to establish connectivity to our surroundings as well as strengthen the relationships we already have. I believe that without the humanities, we are at loss when it comes to understanding the human condition. R. Howard Bloch’s article, “What Words Are Worth” mentions how some say that “the humanities are in trouble” and I second that. The humanities are commonly taken for granted, when really they are “an important ingredient of…worldly ambition (Bloch).” If we continue to disregard the subject, we will not be able to navigate around the world to our fullest potential. Yet, this knowledge is only a fragment of what the humanities has to offer to us, but as we learn to appreciate them and its branches, each lesson contributes to the foundation of our humanity.