I'm an animal
I am so irked when I hear people compared to machines.
Like: “humans are hardwired for connection,”
or “your mind is a computer, and your thoughts are the program it's running.”
My computer doesn't mind that it's dark at 5pm.
My blender isn't bothered by the clutter in the living room.
My dishwasher isn't flooded with cortisol after a stressful interaction.
Colloquial comparisons of people to machines may seem small, or benign, but I don't think they are.
They're dehumanizing.
Take a step back, and it's obvious that thinking of people as machines is key in institutions that abuse humans. Slavery. Exploitative capitalism.
When we compare ourselves to machines, we imply we might turn our power on with the touch of a button.
Like: What is wrong with me that can't I just write this damn email?
We assume we should be able to work and work and work, no matter our mood, the weather, the news, the season, our family circumstances.
Like: Why can't I just focus and pound this work out?
We think of our bodies in terms of measurements - how much we weigh, how much we lift, how many calories we consume, what size we are - rather than in terms of needs and desires. We see our bodies as objects to maintain and optimize, rather than nurture and love.
Like: I just need to lose 10 pounds.
Fuck all this.
Humans are HUMANS.
We're more like plants and animals than computers and robots.
Our brains aren't hard-wired, they're plastic and imaginative and sensitive and hormonal and magic beyond our own understanding.
We aren't machines, we're organisms that need love and care.
So enough already with the “hacks” and “protocols” and “rewiring.”
To treat ourselves like humans, we need:
- the conviction to stop measuring our worth in terms of dollars earned, calories burned, pages written, pounds lost, followers gained.
- the patience to honor our cycles of activity and rest, growth and fallow, willingness and resistance, hope and fear.
- the openness to discover and claim what we need to thrive.
- the courage to love our whole, unmanageable, always-evolving selves.
All this? This is what I help people conjure up in their sweet human selves.
Because this is what I'm continually conjuring up in me.
Right here with you,
Natalie