By Mutryce A. Williams BBA CTM.

I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour; for a day, for a month, but I can give and I'm very happy to do that and I want to do that. Helping people in need is a good and essential part of my life, a kind of destiny.
Princess Diana

In a conversation with my friend John, who could be a real, real serious clown at times, he asked, "Tryce, would you say that you are human?" I shoved him playfully, cocked my eyes and joked, "Boy, what I look like to you some kinda animal or something, no? "He got serious, which I must admit is extremely rare and demanded that I answer his question. Reluctantly I responded, "I don't know I will have to let others be the judge of that, but I really do try to be!" Curious, I asked, "Why are you asking?" He shook his head in disgust and replied, "Girl, people ain't people no more, is a real set a horse and donkey we be nowadays. Pig and all just "go on" better than we! The children and them nowadays, Lord they ain't got no kind a "brought-up-sy."

He shifted and continued, "Girl, this is a dog eat dog world we living in. Living is a cutthroat and shady business. Sugar Aloes really know what he was saying, "Love don't love anybody! Everybody keep cutting each other throat! In this concrete jungle we live in. I telling you is Murder She Wrote!" Everybody for themselves! People don't share what they have anymore, them days there done wid. Gone, gone I tell you, GONE! People don't care about each other. Respect for who and what, that is what they asking you nowadays? This new state of affairs, boy what a calamitous calamity eh! I tell you! Manners gone through the window, everybody jumping pon them high horse and when they passing you, girl, when they passing you, I telling you is "Dust, dust, dust, dust, dust in your face!" He sprang from his chair, started jumping and prancing around mimicking David Rudder, singing loudly "Dust In Your Face." He continued, "Girl, Tryce, Music Festival 2005 me and Rudder going give them pure, pure dust!" I just looked at him in wonderment. I must admit he had me for a while but he proved that he couldn't stay serious for too long, but that is John!

 The conversation set me thinking. I asked myself several questions. What does it mean to be human? Are we in fact living in a concrete jungle? Have we forgotten how or what it means to be human? Who would I consider to be really human? A number of people came to mind Nelson Mandela, Bono of U2, Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Enid Kennedy Shriver but for some reason Princess Diana stood out. She was what some would consider at the time someone who had it all. She was a princess yes, she could have sat at Windsor palace and fulfill only her royal obligations but this woman went beyond that. She went out among the people and showed the world not what it meant to be Royal but how to simply be human.

There are many people past and present who I truly admire but Princess Diana has had a profound impact on the way I want to live my life. I admire Princess Diana not because of her keen fashion sense, beauty or because she was a princess but because she was simply human Her acts of selflessness and kindness have touched the very fiber of my soul. She was so compassionate. She gave of herself to others. She reached out to people and set out not to change the world but to warm and touch as many hearts as she possibly could. There is so much that can be learnt from Princess Diana. She was gracious, well mannered and most importantly she was humble. She always said, "Call me Diana, not Princess Diana."  This I found to be most profound, a woman of her rank, in a world where we are all so caught up with status and titles, demanding that
she be called by her first name and by "commoners" at that. In today's world we have allowed ourselves to become selfish, haughty, manners less and self-centered. This is inhumane behaviour. These behaviours are undesirable. Life is about human contact. Life is about sharing. Life is about treating everyone as equals. Life is about respect. We don't walk around with our qualifications or a monetary figure of our net worth glued to our foreheads. These things in my opinion are not important in the big scheme of things.  Whenever I get the chance to talk to young people I always tell them this. Jane who has all the letters of the alphabet in front of and behind her name could walk down the road everyday and pass Mrs. Tom "like an exam," while Jill who has no letters would pass, smile, greet and have a little chat, who do you think Mrs. Tom would remember or think of in a favourable light.   The way in which we treat people and interact with others, that's what is important. I wouldn't want to be known or remembered as someone who was superficial. I would want to be considered as someone who is human, as someone who cared about the welfare of others, as someone whose smile brightened someone's day, as someone who cared enough to listen and not as someone whose mouth was glued so tight that a good morning or how you doing could not escape and not as someone who always carried malice or ill will in her heart for others, as someone who was simplistically human.

            Princess Diana said in an interview, "I love to hold people's hands when I visit hospitals, even though they are shocked because they haven't experienced anything like it before, but to me it is a normal thing to do."  Tell me that this isn't human! There are some of us who scorn or snub people, in short we have this "better than mentality." We get up on a high horse and as my friend John said all we do is kick up pure dust. I wonder where do some us get off, thinking in this way. Where do we get off treating people as if they are not human? Everyone is human, of flesh and blood we are made. The day that each of us came into the world we came in the same way, with NOTHING and when we leave we go out with clothes on, but what else do we really take with us, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Last December while waiting at the emergency room at Parkland Hospital with a friend of mine, there was a child sitting next to me, she couldn't be more than 2, screaming her lungs out, I would be honest I have never seen a child in St. Kitts in the condition that that child was in. Her mother stood in the corner, getting "a hook up" as it seemed. Instinctively I stretched over, picked up the child and cradled her on my lap until she stopped. My friend turned to me and said, "You know you are going to have to scrub your skin and delouse when you get home and you aren't coming near my children after you have touched that."  I looked at her in amazement because I couldn't believe that she had said what she had said. I snapped, "In that case I guess you going have to eat you children then!" This was a child, not an animal, a child. I was really shocked. My friend was someone I considered a nice person but I suppose we all have our prejudices. 

Princess Diana said, "I am not a political figure, nor do I want to be one; but I come with my heart." At times when we think of giving, we automatically associate it with money or some other material thing but the best gift that we can give someone is the gift of time, even if it is for a second, a minute or a half an hour. There are times when this is all an individual needs. Princess Diana understood suffering. She said, "I understand people's suffering, people's pain, more than you will ever know yourself. Helping people in need is a good and essential part of my life, a kind of destiny." These words could have only come from someone who has a beautiful soul. They came from someone with a heart. They came from someone who knew how to be human. How many of us consider helping people in need an essential part of our lives? How many of us see this as our destiny?

It is really refreshing to hear children reply when asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" They would list, a fireman, policeman, nurse or a doctor. When asked to give a reason, the reply is, "I want to help people?" As these children grow however the answers change and the answer isn't geared toward helping people but rather what profession or way of life is most profitable. I think the more we are driven by money or by materialistic gain, the more inhumane we become because often to reach these goals we have to compromise what makes us human. In a conversation with my cousin Gloria Esdaille, she exclaimed to me," Mutryce, I don't know how people do it. I could never be rich in this lifetime. My heart wouldn't allow me to see people in need and not give." I thought that that was so human.

 I have some of Princess Diana's quotes plastered on my wall and they remind me each day what it means to be human. She said, "Everyone needs to be valued! Everyone has the potential to give something back!  Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves!" She also said,  "Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you! Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can! I'd like people to think of me as someone who cares about them.
 Whoever is in the distress can call me. I will come running wherever they are."

We exist in a world where most of us simply forget how to be human. We are so caught up and wrapped up in ourselves, in our achieving and in our acquiring that we have forgotten that we are members of a community and that we exist not only for ourselves but to help our fellow men. We exist to give, not only money but also something more valuable, our time. We exist to show compassion, to give hugs and share cheer. We exist to make the life of another human being happy. We exist to uplift others. It is such a tragedy that we have forgotten what is means to be human. The Webster New International Dictionary defines human as specie of creature or belonging to man. When one adds an e to the word we get the word humane. This means acting with kindness and compassion. This adjective is used to describe the expected behaviour of a human. Times have changed drastically so much that the word humane has been replaced by the word human. I assume that this happened because humane behaviour is quite rare.

 We are often so busy tearing each other apart, criticizing and seeing the other as an opportunity or venture, seeing the other as someone we can use that we forget what it means to be human. The "inhumane" thing is however that when that person is no longer of any use to us, we discard him like yesterday's rubbish. How can we forget to be human? We are often so busy fighting, backbiting, gossiping or clawing at each other that our greed and our selfishness has blinded us. The only thing that comes from our mouths is the word I. We have forgotten how to coexist peacefully.

I suppose some would say that we have all succumbed to the Darwinian theory and thus it is survival of the fittest. We are human. We are not mere animals.  We see the other person as a threat. We exist is a concrete jungle. We act very suspicious of the other. We often say, "Boy, I have to watch myself with she you know, I ain't casting a glance, I keeping my eyes on she," or "Don't pay him or her no mind see, she does talk and wipe she mouth. Where is the trust? There are times that we are in groups and as soon as one-person walks off, Well, we really start a serious punging." This isn't human.

Four years ago, when my grandmother had her stroke, I sat and I wrote about five, ten page letters to God pleading with him and at times even threatening him and giving him millions of reasons why he shouldn't take her. I gave him reasons why he should spare her and then I wrote to her and pleaded with her to hold on to dear life and my last letter ended selfishly with the phrase, "Please Don't Leave Me! What Am I Going To Do Without You? I Need You To Keep Me Human&" Now that I look back on that time, it isn't that I was being selfish but rather that I was scared and I would even say terrified that I would simply fall apart because more than anything I feared that I would lose what she had instilled in me that somehow made me HUMAN.

I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour; for a day, for a month, but I can give and I'm very happy to do that and I want to do that. Helping people in need is a good and essential part of my life, a kind of destiny."
Princess Diana