What makes us human? The question still remains an unsolvable riddle. Many before us have tried to answer this, many after us will, but really is there any perfect answer to this? I guess not. If we begin from the beginning of civilization as we know it, there are a plethora of great thinkers who have attempted to answer this great puzzle called humanity. Plato says it’s our rationality and the soul that makes us human, while Aristotle is of the opinion that it’s man’s ability to form a community that makes us human.
According to me, it’s our capacity to love that makes us human. Human nature is complex and mingled with the art of deception. Life is not always about the black and whites, it is essentially the greys that make us human. The love I mention here is not only sexual but also platonic. The common opinion is that we live in an unequal world of hatred and mistrust but there is love everywhere. It is often not considered ‘news worthy’ as wars are, but it is always there. Love is everywhere, you just need to look for it.
The pandemic has shown us how important love is for every individual. It has made realise the invaluable connections with our loved ones, and how loss is also an aspect of love. It has made us long for the love we used to receive from all those micro-communications, be it in the form of smiles, or through human touch. Most importantly the pandemic has made us believe that love actually exists, and all of us deserve it. When the plague swept Italy in 1348, Renaissance poet Petrarch wrote reams of verse for his unrequited love, Laura, during her life and long after she had passed away. All of us got accustomed to the idea of loss in the pandemic. Pandemic though is infamous for breaking hearts but I have also seen love finding a way because of the pandemic. As stay-at-home orders were rolled out, relationships adapted for good or bad.
Google searches around the question ‘Why am I dreaming about my ex?’ skyrocketed more than twenty-four hundred per cent, according to research by the digital-marketing agency AGY47. Loneliness pervaded the lives of everyone, as they tried to navigate social distancing. Pandemic love stories are actually future classics that tell the moonlit stories of Gen Z. It was fuelled by technology and online dates. The love stories that were born out of the pandemic are original and will probably never be re-created again.
The author is a student at The Bhawanipur Education Society College, Kolkata. View are personal
