A human is human through others.
The words are expressed in the aftermath of the trial where Zarko Dragic was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity in the systematic rape of women in the Bosnian War. The protagonist in Kim Echlin’s fifth novel, Speak, Silence, is a female travel reporter assigned to witness the testimony of 16 women, three generations, describing and reliving their nightmare to three judges in a courtroom in the Hague. The author is circumspect in avoiding the graphic details while masterfully conveying the raw emotions of the victims. The event is real, the characters fictitious. Kim Echlin’s novels are suffused with pithy observations, memorable in their succinct capture of emotion and insight.
A human is human through others.
The profundity of the sentence was dramatic this past week with the loss of one life and the beginning of another, the death of a young adult and the birth of a new born, the numbing reality of a sudden departure and the unbridled joy of a welcome arrival.
Our despair, our hopelessness, our questions, our unimaginable pain, felt through our others. A child, a parent, a spouse, a relative, a friend. We hurt, we feel, and hope for the strength to continue. Not to forget, always to remember, except with less tears.
A human is human through others.
A smile, a laugh, a moment of pride, a song of rejoice, experienced through our others. A birth, a wedding, an anniversary, an accomplishment, a reunion. We beam, we boast, and celebrate the moment for as long as we can. Revel in the now, when we are able, with all the exuberance our hearts can muster.
A human is human through others.
Be with your others, be there for your others. It is in our caring and our sharing when we will be human through others.
Wonderings 
Wonderful.
Bohdan Kordan, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Political Studies
St. Thomas More College l University of Saskatchewan
1437 College Drive l Saskatoon, SK l S7N 0W6
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Thank you for this Henry.
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I cannot help hoping that this tragedy was not within your family circle. I find it is the kindness in our reactions with others that brings our humanity to the fore: the other day my husband became annoyed at a vehicle following him from the farmer’s co-op while hooting. As he reached the T-junction, the hooting grew louder and arms waved out of both windows of the vehicle behind him. He stopped and a man got out carrying my husband’s walking stick he had inadvertently left on the back bumper. “I think you need this Baba (a Xhosa expression showing reverence for an older man)” he said as he handed it over. That man is a fine example of being human through others.
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Thank you for the story Anne. The death was the son of a former colleague and friend. It is the little acts of kindness which add up to a better world.
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