My best friend during the 1980s said to me once that he hoped I’d never lose my ‘rawness’. Another good friend in the early ’90s nicknamed me ‘the Human’. I couldn’t have wished for a finer accolade.
When people ask what religion you are or what nationality or whether you’re a Northsider or a Southsider or whatever the pigeonholes of choice are at any time or in any place, could there be a better response than saying: ‘I’m a human being’. What a defence against being categorised, pigeonholed, sealed up and packaged in some preconceived bias. Human! If we could all recognise each other’s humanity, I mean how good would that be?! Remember that scene in that wonderful movie Elephant Man when the protagonist declares: ‘I am a human being!’
In Northern Ireland, there’s the old joke of someone asking a guy what religion he is. He says ‘I’m a Muslim.’ He’s asked: ‘But are you a Catholic Muslim or a Protestant Muslim?’
Once, when I was asked my religion I replied ‘I’m a human being.’ People laughed. They thought it was funny. There was no malice on their part. But I wonder if the laughter had something to do with recognising the needlessness of their albeit innocent attempt to pigeonhole a fellow human being. And we do it all the time. In Britain: Labour or Conservative. In the US, Republican or Democrat. All these things help us to focus on differences.
Maybe for today if we go to pigeonhole someone let’s catch ourselves doing it and instead look for our shared humanity. Oh, and see how the Unionists and Irish Republicans, succeeded in doing precisely that over the weekend. Transcending difference. And wasn’t it great to hear the humour, where our shared humanity so often manifests, with Peter Robinson’s joke about winning the gold medal for negotiating at the forthcoming London Olympics but that no doubt they’d then have to negotiate about what flag and anthem to use. And Martin McGuinness’ quip about his suggestion that Peter wear a green tie and he’d wear an orange one.
By the way, might as well say it hear as anywhere, I’ve a proposed symbol for the unity of humans in Northern Ireland. You know the yin yang symbol? Well picture it with, say, the white section coloured green, white and orange, and the black section coloured red, white and blue. And the black circle in the white area would be the Union Jack and the white circle in the black section would be the Tricolour. I know no more powerful symbol for the two major energies in Northern Ireland. It would be a symbol of balance, of the unity of opposites. That the British identity in Northern Ireland is somehow central to Irish identity and the Irish identity there is somehow intrinsic to the British identity. Neither dominating the other, each complementing the other. Each recognising the other in itself…