"The human desire for containment cannot work with God. For instance, many people like to take a breathless landscape, and frame it in a five-by-seven photograph; some people like to take a sea-faring ship that tames the stormy blue depths, and seal it in a bottle. Can we contain the Living Word in a book?"

— The Monkey

Human inferiority doesn’t come from discrimination or judgments from others. It comes from a fundamental and subtle cause— we don’t know who we are. I’m sure you believe you know who you are. You are a man or a woman, a brother or a sister, a teacher and a student, a friend and a co-worker. You might be an out-going person, a reflective thinker, or a religious advocate. Nonetheless, we must know there is much more to us. Remember, we are endowments from God. Where we go with ourselves, though, is up to us.

A great number of us take ourselves to mediocrity, because we do not look to see our whole endowment. As suggested in The Beginning, “People as individuals also divided, as they could no longer see their whole being.” This is further guaranteed by a notion we seamlessly allow— “I’m only human.”

Suppose we call ourselves “entity,” or something else without an inborn excuse. Try it next time for reasons that might bring you to uttering, “I’m only human.” Say instead— I am “entity.” Then take notice of how free you feel. If you don’t feel the sensation, say again, “I am entity.” Then say it aloud; then shout it time after time. If you cannot get it now, try it again for the next several millenniums, because we have dismissed ourselves at least that long.

We must see that limitations, while real, are not all that make up you and me. Suppose I am less than you in physical strength, mental quickness, or emotional endurance. Your family lineage may be one that is nationally recognized or even feared. I would have no misconception about how I compare with you, though admitting it might be difficult at first.

The power in being a human is that I am not obligated to feel, much less be, inferior to you. While you can overpower me, you can never own me, take away my endowment, or smear the One who authored me.

One automobile may be “inferior” to another because of a defect or a flaw. One photograph may be inferior to another in its fidelity to the real picture. Humans, though, reserve in themselves the power of choice to be different or better. It’s as if they nurture inside a sleeping spirit of which no one can deprive them. It’s a shine of “quality,” if you will, that only their Creator can qualify. We must accept that only God can measure human quality.

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