“The fact that we don’t have to fit into a predetermined, cyclical course of events at all times is what makes being human possible. So let’s use this opportunity to really be human.”
Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the Humanist Association of Germany, called last weekend in his message for the new season to use the beginning of a time of light and warmth to “consciously choose the direction in which we are going for ourselves and with others. Only in this way can our actions remain sensible and provide a reliable basis for ourselves and others.”
In his message, he reminded us that people are not only biological beings, but also cultural beings who do not have to fit into a predetermined, cyclical course of events at all times. “As human beings, we have the special opportunity to act consciously and create new things and relationships.”
The beginning of spring is therefore an excellent time not only to leave a phase of cold and darkness behind, but also to escape “what has weighed us down in the past” and to dedicate ourselves to renewing our own lives.
However, to ensure that new initiatives are reliable, sustainable and as effective as possible and that action remains sensible, three points should be taken into account, says Wolf. It is therefore important to think about the people who are among the poor and excluded in our own society. “After all, as real people, we do not live in the placeless and timeless virtual world of the homo oeconomicus of economic models, but we always live in a certain place at a certain time.”
He advocated facing up to this insight individually and collectively “in order to consciously develop our own perspectives. Everyone individually, in groups or even all people together. Otherwise, we run the risk of not really living our own lives. Because we succumb to the myths of religions, for example, or to the illusions of consumerism as offered by the dominant economy.”
Frieder Otto Wolf also reminded us that every life is embedded in a fundamental rhythm that even people cannot escape: Birth, life and death. He pleaded not to lose sight of this.
Wolf: “The eternal spring that detaches itself from this rhythm, as the radical philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once put it, is fundamentally destructive for people. It is the eternal springtime of amnesia, in which past and future have disappeared from the horizon of experience.”
Finally, the insight that we are not trapped in an eternal cycle also makes an instructed hope possible: “We can really and effectively say goodbye to certain moments of our own past and start again. Not by forgetting or repressing, but by remembering and processing.” This is necessary in order to be able to act effectively and find ways to make a new start.
He also reminded the audience that in spring, nature focuses on the younger, next generations. “The new beginnings represented by the image of spring are always about something that clearly extends beyond individual existence, beyond one’s own concrete life.”
Humanists should therefore not let the invitation offered by nature pass them by. “This is precisely where we can consciously bring our creativity, our self-reflection and our critical thinking about the times ahead into play. This can only be of benefit to all people who want to live together as human beings.”
To ensure that spring in nature can also be accompanied by a new dawn in human existence, we should try to do three things: “Find out which new dawns in our own time and place invite us to join in. Empathize with what moves others in their striving for a new beginning. And to show solidarity with all those who, like us, really want to live together as human beings.”
