Occasionally, events that I experience, witness, or just hear about remind me to question myself, my values, and how I live them. I think that is how it should be. What follows is the result of today’s pondering.

How do we determine whether a person is valuable or not? (Valuable in the sense of importance.)

It seems like an easy question, and in one sense, perhaps it is. We all come with different values (value in the sense of amount or number or specific status) for specific attributes: some are smarter, others are athletic, still others are artistic. We can categorize humans by a myriad of means. Is this one a kind person or a mean one? Does this other person belong to my group (religion, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin, skin color, and the list goes on) or not? These may help you place a person in a category, but I submit that it has nothing to do with a person’s value (importance).

What about job qualifications? I’ll argue that speaks to suitability for a specific task, and maybe even whether a person is considered valuable within an organization, but it does not address their overall value as a human.

What does?

Don’t answer that with your words. I already know what you think by how you treat those around you who are different than you.