Friday, March 6, 2009

*Human Dignity*

A person with dignity is someone worthy of respect and honor, and so it is commonly associated with wealth and power. Therefore, the Ateneans that we are, we are sometimes seen as respectable and honorable people which are of higher level than those outside our “Ateneo world.” But dignity is neither about material possessions nor power. All human beings, men and women and rich and poor alike, are given dignity even upon conception. The dignity of a person is always with him and just needs to be recognized. So it is not correct to see oneself as one who is born with greater dignity than others.


We believe that the true aim of NSTP for sending Ateneans to different areas is to show us that people who are not like us, in terms of the privileges and the quality of education that we receive, are still worthy of the respect and honor given to us by many. By learning how they act, think, and behave, we have come to a realization that the children in our area, however naughty and noisy they are, are still great kids. They have shown us how talented they were in spite of the financial status that we know they are having. Upon watching them perform on stage and looking at their art works, we realized that in some aspects, those kids are actually better than us. They can do some things which we can’t do. They excel in some areas where we are not good at. We may be higher than them in terms of education and social status, but they possess some blessings which we do not have. Maybe they can offer more than what we can, but because of their status and lack of resources, they just cannot reach their full potential. Who knows?!


After our NSTP experience, this is what we learned about the true meaning of human dignity: Dignity is not just about seeing what you have which others don’t have, nor seeing what you don’t have which other people have. It is recognizing that we, as humans, are all given blessings unique to us. Our strengths can be the weaknesses of others, and our weaknesses their strengths. And that makes us all equal: no one is higher, no one is lower. Dignity is about living our life with thankfulness, and striving to become better so as not to waste the blessings that we enjoy but are not given to others. It is also about treating other people with respect, knowing that just like you and me, they are born with dignity and are worthy to be honored. Since each of us is a wonderful creation of God, we are all deserving of respect and honor. Because of this, we should see others as great creations of God, equal to us in nature.

No comments:

Post a Comment