A student once asked Margaret Mead, the noted anthropologist, what she considered to be the first evidence of civilization. The student expected the answer to be a tool of some sort, or shards of clay pots, perhaps a primitive sort of wheel. Mead’s answer was none of these. Instead, she said the first sign of civilization was a human femur (a thigh bone) that had healed from a break, a bone thousands of years old found in an archaeological site. Mead went on to explain: in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you’re a goner. With a broken leg you cannot flee from danger nor fight it off. A broken leg means you cannot hunt for food or safely get to the river to drink. A badly injured animal or human becomes food for predators, and no animal or human can survive on his own long enough for a serious injury to heal. A broken and healed femur is evidence that someone(s) took care of the injured person, carried that person to safety, provided food, water, protection, and the time needed for the leg to heal. Helping another through difficulty – helping someone in need – that’s where civilization begins, said Mead.
That’s good to know, because helping others is a major part of dealing with the corona pandemic in which we are immersed these days. The need for help is very real. Hitting 65 is no longer just the cliché age for retirement or the start of Social Security. It’s now also the gateway to being in the high-risk category for contracting COVID. It means you may well need help with mundane things like shopping for groceries.
Many businesses, out of sheer self-interest, have adapted to customers who no longer want to enter stores or offices the way they used to. That’s a lesson for all of us. We all need to adapt to the realities the pandemic requires us to face:
- Avoiding risk when we can and managing it when we can’t;
- Following the rules set by trustworthy scientists and medical professionals;
- Ensuring those we influence understand the dangers and the countermeasures;
- Actively helping others live safely and comfortably amid the dangers;
- Nudging government to do what only it can do in these tough times;
- Above all, thinking beyond self
A broken femur for Margaret Mead’s ancient caretaker. The broken normal of today. Both, a chance to be civilized.
