"Human," "Humble," "Humility," 2

       "To err is human," said Alexander Pope.

       It may have been our errant ways that led biologist-essayist Lewis Thomas to ponder the impermanence of our species, so unprogrammed for success compared to a school of fish or members of the insect realm.  But Thomas posited one universal human behavior that he said just might save us:  "the urge to be useful."

       Lest it be said by the species that replaces us--said posthumously, "after burial in the earth"--that we were not sufficiently of use to the planet and one another, we should heed Lewis Thomas, and poet Marge Piercy too:   "I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,/...who do what has to be done, again and again."

      May we humbly seek our ways to serve.