Being human

A dog does not know itself as a 'dog'.  At the most, it knows the name that it is called by.  But the fact that the dog does not know its real self but only a designated name, does not affect the way a dog behaves.  It still is primarily a dog. 

Wonder if the same can be said of us human beings.  The whole process of naming a child and it growing up with additional identity markers in a way distances one from one's basic human nature and take on the 'added' identities as the primary characteristics of being human.  It is like the dog beginning to act as 'Ceasar' rather than as a dog - just because he is named Ceasar. 

Human beings are perhaps the creatures that have the best capacity to reflect on oneself and our own basic nature.  In such a situation, the added identities we acquire as we live our life in a family, in a society, in a particular culture, ... need basically to build on the basic human nature.  And in case the acquisition of an identity goes at a tangent with our basic humanness, then one has to make serious choice for what is basic rather than what is to be acquired.  Human life cannot be put at stake for a name tag, or a caste label or a bad word or scolding uttered by someone else.