On the third (and far from the largest) planet in a small solar system in a minor galaxy nowhere near the center of the universe, there is intelligent life.  As far as we know, there is no life anywhere else.  We believe that a God big enough to contain the universe put that life on this planet and called the highest form of that life "man."  He created billions of stars and saved man for the sixth day.  David asked that God, "When I look at Thy universe, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou has established, what is man that Thou art mindful of him?"

It seems to me ultimately crucial that God, faced with the possibility of creating an entire universe from absolutely nothing, chose as the culmination of that creation man; that God, with an infinite number of possibilities before Him and no pattern at all to guide Him, gave His most complex creature that particular set of qualities we call "being human."

So there must be something extremely valuable about being human, something we should celebrate, something we should make every attempt to perfect.  The faults which separate us from angels are far less important than the virtues which separate us from, say, rocking chairs.  But what does it mean to "be human?"  What makes the experience worthwhile?  What is there about human beings which makes them the focus of God's universe?  From here on:  an attempt to define "the human."

First part of the attempt:  when we moved to Wisconsin just before my senior year in high school I met a girl who would be, before she graduated, homecoming queen, prom queen, girls' state representative, honor student, star in the class play and everyone's favorite babysitter.  I soon came closer to loving her than I had come to loving anyone else, but it wasn't her glory that brought me tumbling.

One night at play practice the director got on her back about something, and kept it up until she ran from the stage crying.  Right then, for the first time, I felt really close to her.  Just when she was embarrassed to have anyone see her, I saw her as beautiful.  And something about the way weakness functioned at that moment has a great deal to do with "being human."