Humble Human

The words “Humble” and “Human” have a common root from the Latin “humus” that means earth. To be human and to be humble both are related to being grounded, with both feet well planted on the ground.

Humbleness is a characteristic of people with high self-esteem. Humble people are open to assume they don’t have all the answers, to accept their mistakes and vulnerability, which also make them more compassionate about other people’s failures. In other words, they embrace their “humanity”. When they make a mistake, what interests them most is not to find blame, neither in himself nor in others, but rather in curiously finding out what happened.

The opposite to humility is called “arrogance”, an eloquent display of superiority and exhibit of achievements, to mask an underlying feeling of weakness and insecurity. Our arrogance kills us, literally. Instead of accepting things as they are, we want them to go a certain way, we want life to follow our desires, impeding us to flow with life, and making our life miserable.

Idiots become arrogant as they think they know it all.  Wise people instead become humble when they discover they don’t know much about life.