The main difference between ‘human being’ and being ‘human’ is that the ‘human being’ is just a member of race called Homo sapiens, while being ‘human’ means displaying characteristics that are unique to human beings such as the ability to show emotions – to cry, show love and compassion for others.
A 10-year old girl was brought to the Accident and Emergency Room of the hospital at death’s door. My eyes welled up with tears as I examined her. She was almost in coma. Her breathing was shallow and the peripheral pulses were feeble.
‘We’ll resist attempts to subjugate Middle Belt, South’
There were tell-tale signs of battering on her body – fresh raw whip wounds and bruises all over her body; scars of previous injuries; little round burns possibly from cigarette stubs on the back of her hands; a left black eye with markedly swollen lids which made it impossible to examine her eye; a sunken right eye; loose and flabby skin on her chest wall demonstrating severe dehydration.
I came to the inevitable conclusion that the injuries must have been sustained from domestic violence-burning, beating, kicking and punching, and so on. I asked myself, “What has this little harmless girl done to deserve this treatment?” Right now we were concerned with her survival and struggled to ensure that her airway was free and she was breathing.
We gave her oxygen supplement by placing an oxygen mask on her face. Finally, we set up an intravenous infusion to maintain the blood circulation. Throughout the procedure, which ordinarily should be painful, she did not wince.
“What happened?” I managed to ask her uncle when at last I was sure she was on the road to recovery. He said: “Aduke is my niece. Her mother (my younger sister) died when she was six and had to live with me. She was fond of stealing petty things such as toys and items that were not really useful for her or anyone.
However when questioned or punished instead of showing remorse she would just be placid. This was unnerving for everyone. No matter the punishment meted out to her, not a drop of tears would she shed. When my wife could no longer cope with her spitefulness, I had to send her to live with my elder sister.
“I don’t know much about what had happened to her, but neighbours phoned me to come quickly to take her away if I didn’t want her to die. There are allegations that she is a heartless witch and a number of strange events have happened since she came to live in their neighbourhood.”
I looked at the unfortunate little girl and then turning to her uncle, asked, “Do you really think she is a witch?
“She might be,” he whispered into my ears.
I pulled him aside, away from the hearing of the traumatised girl and asked in the same soft voice, “Why do you think she is a witch?
“She will never cry no matter how much you tongue lash her or beat her. I believe that is why she got a beating of her life,” he replied without any sign of sympathy for his niece. I knew I had to do more than treating this girl! I had to educate and convince him and others that the inability to cry by anyone was not tantamount to being a witch.
Crying is a uniquely human trait. It shows we are sensitive to things we come across in our lives and, in that way, it is important for survival. Only humans possess the amazing system that causes crying in addition to tears for lubricating their eyes.
Strong emotions cause chemicals to be released from our brain which directly stimulate production of tears from the tear gland. It should, therefore, be obvious that for anyone to be able to cry in response to an appropriate situation or pain, two things must be present.
The first is the psychological circuit that will provide the stimulation of the brain and the second is the presence of a functioning tear gland. Consequently any factor that affects emotions such as a depressive illness can prevent crying. Severely depressed patients often “go beyond weeping” and settle into a cry-proof state.
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