Or The Power of Humanity.
Tokyo, November 2023.
I was always considered bright at the school. I got my “medals”: top one, top two, top three … golden boy, silver, bronze.
I never gave the metals a great importance. I was happy and proud because of the feeling it generated with my family: my Mum and Dad, my Grandparents, all. They seemed to celebrate these metals on me more than I did. Interesting.
I was of course happy to get them, as a recognition to my ability; not so much to my dedication. At that time, I felt I dedicated the time I needed to, as time existed to learn and progress and make my parents proud. That was the importance of time for me, and the results were “medals”.
I always remember the excitement of the “awards ceremony”. Few hundred people gathered at a theatre in town; school children of all grades together with their parents, to witness the act of medals and diploma giving, get pictures taken and … and feel very proud, everyone.
I will always remember how proud my Mum was. I always remember how proud I felt to making my Mum proud. That was my biggest prize. Because I loved my Mum immensely, I guess for everything Mums are loved globally. For mine, she worked tirelessly day in and day out, raising four kids, two sets of non-identical twins one and a half years difference in age! And she worked so hard to get us all through, while my Father worked so hard to bring a single standard salary home, to propel the family forward, towards our dreams. We got the essentials to get by, our family unity and our dreams. And that felt to be greatly enough.
The awards ceremony was my prize for them. The one day in a year when they were invited to enjoy, to feel proud. Although I did not plan this myself: I wouldn’t know, first time on, that a theatre-like event would wait for us at the completion of the year. Although I didn’t know, I did feel it for what it was: the tribute to my parents’ effort. And on subsequent years, I did work to enjoy that moment again, with them.
However great the medals and metals felt, yet they were not the academic reward that made me feel the best. The academic prize for me, my highlight for the year, was this diploma I used to be given with some frequency, called “Human Values”.
So, at these ceremonies, I ended up holding this diploma with both my hands, and this metal, gold, silver or bronze, hung on my neck … and while everyone congratulated me for the metal, I was congratulating myself for the piece of paper, rectangular, intriguing prize, of being human, or something alike.
At that age, somewhere between 9 and 13 years old, I think, being the only one in my class having won this prize, was very rewarding and intriguing at the same time. I never stopped to think what could be the real meaning of it. I don’t remember anyone explaining its meaning to me: Why did I get it in the first place? What did I do to deserve it more than anyone else in my class, few years in a row? What qualified me to have it?.
No one ever explained, or I cannot recall any such explanations. No one asked me about it, or I cannot recall anyone paying interest on it. I just made it mine, felt it mine, for some reason I understood it was mine legitimately. I embraced it as my prize, personal, meaningful.
I liked its denomination: I always felt human values were critically important in life; something I learned at home. I felt proud to have them and exhibit them to others: to be recognised for … being myself, I guess. I did not recognise at the time that for some, these values are not taught or expressed directly to them, so their focus is to live them perhaps inside, make them tangible and real just for them, not for others. Perhaps.
Life went on and prizes became all of a different nature: graduation , university degree, course achievements, employment contracts, professional successes, successful relationships, love … so many “prizes” made me forget about my childhood achievement.
Until covid-19 pandemic came up to most of our lives. I had hard time during the isolation imposed by severe lockdowns at England. And I came down to basics. I reflected about life. And I rescued my “special diploma” memories. I realised that the best prize, the one thing I was and wanted to still be, the best joy for me to practice in this life, should be to behave as human as possible, consciously, because it seemed I could; to bring those human values back to life, to as many lives as possible, and consciously back to me. To change our world based on the conscious, consistent exercising of as many human values as possible; to behave based on what my parents made me be.
And I created hUmAn21.
Living at Spain (Madrid, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gijón), Korea (Ulsan, Geoje Island, Busan), Singapore, Southampton England or Tokyo; the common denominator are the values that people exhibit and experience. All cultures I lived with show a different array of values in their day to day, in their trusted intimacy of friends or family, or professional time. All these values are shared, just in different sets for different people in different parts of the world. More values here, less so there … yet, they are contained in the same tool box: the human’s.
hUmAn21 is about transforming our world based on the appreciation and practice of as many shared human values as possible, between people, anywhere they come from, in the world. Yes, it is a dream, that creates the goals for the world to become more “one” and improve for our future generations to enjoy.
Humans, when free to express their innate values, as much of the time as possible, in the open of a myriad of shared communities, will change the world for that better place we dream of to pass on.
And when digitalisation is used to connect humans over all barriers, unprecedented engagement will be created, that will accelerate the speed of this transformation. Together, these connected communities will change the world, with the one shared value set we all have: humanity.
hUmAn21
Free. Social. Digital.