The Essence of Being Human

The Ancient Story of Care

In his searching study of the human condition, the existential philosopher Martin Heidegger described how fundamental and crucial the capacity to care is to our very nature as human beings. There is an old story about care that Heidegger quotes in his main work, Being and Time, which can also be found in Goethe’s Faust. My clinical experience echoed the truth found in this little parable. Whatever problems people presented in therapy, the common theme inevitably involved what they loved and cared about in life.

Once, when ‘Care’ was crossing a river, she saw some clay; she thoughtfully took up a piece and began to shape it. While she was meditating on what she had made, Jupiter came by. ‘Care’ asked him to give it spirit and this he gladly granted. But when she wanted her name to be bestowed upon it, he forbade this and demanded that it be given his name instead. While ‘Care’ and Jupiter were disputing, Earth arose and desired that her own name be conferred on the creature, since she had furnished it with part of her body. They asked Saturn to be their arbiter and he made the following decision, which seemed a just one: ‘Since you, Jupiter, have given its spirit, you shall receive that spirit at its death; and since you, Earth, have given its body, you shall receive its body. But since “Care” first shaped this creature, she shall possess it as long as it lives. And because there is now a dispute among you as to its name, let it be called homo [man], for it is made out of humus [earth].

Whatever else we can say about what it means to be human, the idea that, as this little parable suggests, it is from “care” that we originate. It is from care that we are born both physically and spiritually. Physically, we are conceived in an act of love and/or simply desire on the part of our parents. Either way, the sensibility of care is involved at some level, whether it was out of true love or lust. In this sense, care is part of how we came to be. Spiritually, we are born again, as we learn to develop the capacity to open our heart more fully and to care more deeply.

• Today, reflect on how it is care that possesses us for as long as we live. Hence, it is care, or, more precisely, the capacity to care that is the basis of all of our emotions and it is our emotions that then move us to take action in the world around us. It is because we care that we can feel mad, sad , or glad.