The Ten Rules of Being Human are as true as they are good
life lessons. #1, #6, and #7 can be categorized as physical truths because #1
looks at the body, #6 speaks about people’s preferences towards locations, and
#7 explains the looks that we can have about other people. We keep our body
until we die, no matter how much we like or hate it (#1); “here” and “there”
don’t have much difference between them when we find ourselves wanting to be at
another “there” when we are at a certain “here” (#6); when we love or hate
people, those people become mirrors of the qualities we love or hate about
ourselves (#7). #2, 3, 4, and 5 may be called the learning truths because of
the lessons they portray. We are constantly learning lessons in life (#2);
there are no mistakes in life, only the failed attempts that are part of the
ultimate solution (#3); the lessons we learn come at us many times in various
ways until we finally learn it and move on to the next lesson (#4); as long as
you live, you constantly learn lessons (#5). #8, 9, and 10 can be called
personal truths because they portray essential truths a person should know
about himself/herself. Life is only what you see and make of it and what you do
is up to you (#8); all the answers you will ever need come from you and your
own experiences (#9); even if your soul may live, you will eventually forget
all these rules when you die (#10). If I was asked if there was any rule I
would remove from the list, I would not remove any but I would add a new rule,
nonetheless. It was a great little quote in a swimming pool at East Stroudsburg
College: “Pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional.” Feeling small
amounts of pain is completely unavoidable, but having to feel anything further
is avoidable as long as you can make sense of what can potentially cause you
pain to that extent. But sometimes, people don’t realize that and hurt
themselves anyway, and that is just a natural part of being human.
