Dear reader,

For years, centuries, and millennia, men and women from every nation, country, and kingdom have asked themselves the same question: what does it mean to be human? Aristotle defined man as “a rational animal.” Nietzsche defined man as “a rope stretched between beast and the Overman—a rope over an abyss.” Dostoevsky defined a man as “a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.”

Are humans fundamentally good, or are they unbelievably evil? Does the definition of human even stay eternally constant, or does it always evolve? Attempts at defining humanity range from wonderfully enthusiastic to deeply nihilistic and from divinely beautiful to eternally wicked. The only consensus that can be inferred is that there is no consensus.

I cannot promise you that you will find the answer to this dilemma in the following pages. However, I hope that as you explore the different perspectives on humanity floating through the essays, stories, and poems in Issue 53 of the Forum, you may find yourself drifting just a little bit closer to the truth.

Enjoy the beautiful weather and the wonderful writing.

~ Leon Rapoport, Editor-in-Chief