Being Human

I went to grocery shopping this morning and went to the fruit stand Lily and I frequent. When I made my payment to the stand owner, a lady, she asked me, your wife didn't come? I told her that Lily was traveling.  She smiled, "you always come together ".

Her words warmed my heart.  We are her loyal customers because she sells fresh fruits at good prices. Over the past two years we go to her stand nearly every week.  We only talk about fruits, but over the time, an invisible bond has formed.

Being human, her simply gesture of care made my day.

I actually experienced and enjoyed such small gestures of kindness quite a few times before.

With my special diet, every time I order my lunch at cafeteria with a new vendor this year, I tell the server 'no rice'. Last Thursday,  when I was about to tell the server, a young man, 'no rice ', he moved to entrée section already. 'You remember my preference ', I said to him. He smiled without saying anything.  On Friday,  I was late for lunch, the young man left the counter already. One of the cashiers, a young woman,  was behind the counter,  before I open my mouth,  she moved to entrée section without rice in the plate. 'Thank you', I said. She smiled and filled the plate with my orders. I am really pleased with this seemingly trivial gesture of kindness.

Something similar happened with Lily as well.

Years ago, we frequent a certain restaurant almost weekly when we were graduate students in California, and later with our son. Then I left for an out of state job. She was still in the graduate school,  and continued to go to the restaurant with our son. A waitress, while helping them to their table, she inquired "where is daddy?" Lily was touched by the waitress' care.

While asking chatGPT to translate my essay into Chinese,  it translated "being human" into "作为一个人‘’。The translation does not fully capture the depth and richness of the original English phrase, its philosophical and emotional connotations.

Looking for the meaning of the phrase "being human" on Google,  I found that the following matched my understanding the best.

To be human is to be at the Centre of our own universe, to experience life in all its colors and all its potential. Experience the awe of being alive and the thrill of discovering what it means to be human.

Being human means we all have our strengths and weaknesses, our pain and our joy, our rational side and our emotions.

The small gesture of care is more touching today because, being human, I am more sensitive and sentimental today with Lily traveling.