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Humans featured post, a Humans Media favorite.
Fly Your Flag
“You are such a freak!” “Why can’t you be normal?” “Would it be so hard for you to be like everyone else?” “ You like what?’ “You do that?” “ Why would you, want that, or want to do that or like that?” Sound familiar? I bet a vast majority of us have. I know I did and often still do.
By Alexandra Grantabout a month ago in Humans
Elizabeth Smart: From Captivity to Courage
The night Elizabeth Smart disappeared did not announce itself with drama. It arrived quietly, the way danger often does. In the early hours of June 5, 2002, while a Salt Lake City home slept, a man entered through an open window. He moved with confidence, not haste. He carried a knife. He went first to a child’s bed.
By Aarsh Malikabout a month ago in Humans
Living with Spirit
A ferry was standing at the New York seashore, the one that carries people to the Statue of Liberty. However, to board the ferry, one first had to buy a ticket. Since it was the weekend, there was a huge crowd, and the ferry was packed to capacity. People standing in line were waiting for the second and third ferries under the scorching sun, holding Coke, burgers, juice, and movie cameras in their hands.
By Sudais Zakwanabout a month ago in Humans
Essence, Embodiment, and Relational Reality
The Failure of Reduction and the Need for Synthesis There is a persistent failure in many modern attempts to explain what a human being is. Some frameworks reduce the person entirely to matter, insisting that identity, consciousness, morality, and meaning are nothing more than emergent properties of physical processes. Other frameworks move in the opposite direction, detaching spirit from reason and grounding belief in intuition alone, often at the cost of coherence or accountability. Both approaches fail because both misunderstand essence. One denies that essence exists at all. The other treats it as something vague and undefinable.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
Resistance Is Not the Enemy
Iron sharpens iron. Brakes save lives. Friction preserves form. Modern culture treats resistance as failure. Anything that slows momentum is framed as obstruction, anything that introduces friction is assumed to be opposition, and anything that interrupts progress is labeled a setback. But this instinct misunderstands how both physical systems and human growth actually work. Resistance is not inherently hostile. In many cases, it is the only thing preventing collapse.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
The Refiner’s Fire Is Not the Whetstone
There is a difference between being sharpened and being transformed, and confusing the two leads to frustration when growth does not feel productive. Sharpening implies refinement of existing form. Fire implies change in composition. Both processes are uncomfortable, but they operate on different levels and for different purposes. When people expect sharpening and receive fire instead, they often assume something has gone wrong, when in reality something deeper is taking place.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
You See From Where You Stand
"The room remains full whether you can see it or not." One of the most persistent misunderstandings about perception is the assumption that seeing is the same as knowing. People often believe that if something feels clear, it must be complete, and if something feels obscure, it must be absent. But awareness does not work that way. What you perceive at any moment is not a measure of what exists. It is a measure of what your current position allows to pass through.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
(17) The Shape of the Work
This essay exists to make the structure of the series visible after the fact. It does not introduce new arguments or advance new claims. Its purpose is architectural. It explains how the work is organized, why the sequence matters, and what each movement is responsible for accomplishing. Without this reference, readers may grasp individual insights while missing the coherence of the whole. With it, the series can be understood as a single, intentional construction rather than a collection of adjacent essays.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
