Scientists and social scientists have long tried to identify the qualities that make us human. Some proposed tool making, only to find that crows make tools. Some proposed language, only to find that dolphins have language.
I propose that yearning is what makes us human. We yearn for something beyond ourselves. These yearnings are inexplicable and drive us to search with passion for something that gives us peace—in art, in spiritual life, in love, in deep compassion and even in a state beyond death. Resolution can often seem out of reach.
It may be that all of these destinations for yearning are really the same. Without a deep yearning, life can’t be fully human.
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