Being H U M A N

Being H U M A N Day

Entry for Writer’s Cramp

Word Count: 644



    She opened her purse and took out her last $10 bill. Her steps hesitant and heart reluctant to let go, she willed herself into the shop, bought a dozen cans of chicken soup. She had them packed in a brown paper bag and delivered to  the Johnson family. They could always use more food to feed 8 little mouths. Across the street, a grumpy old man read the reminder and huffed. He rolled the paper in a ball and aimed it at the trash bin, missing it. He walked past the offending paper on the ground, head held high in scorn. He stopped a few feet away, shoulders slumped, rolling his eyes. He retreated back to the paper ball and placed it in its rightful bin. He pulled out his check book, and after a contemplation between  two zeroes or three, he ended up filling in the greater number. With a sigh, he mailed the cheque to Mrs Phillips, the principal of the Canterfeild Elementary school. She would have a better budget to order new books for the school now.

    A few blocks down, a young man, sipping his coffee at a bistro, read the ticker scrolling across the TV screen. He gazed thoughtfully at his coffee, still steaming. He got up and left for the local hospital, collecting balloons and candy for the young inpatients on his way. Two lanes away from bistro, a young mother, with a baby riding on her hip, stepped out to check her mail. She found the reminder too. After a few minutes of nail biting, she got into her car with the baby and drove to the local Gerontology and Senior Care Center. She spent her day visiting the elderly and giving them a chance to play with her baby.

    The billboard over the strip mall diplayed the same reminder: Being

H U M A N Day, a special day to celebrate the spirit of being human. A holiday celebrated in this minuscule of a town of Canterfeild, south of New Mexico. In the memory of 19 year old Aminah, who wrote a strange will 8 days before she died. In an accident. A will on a premonition. The contents of which shook her home town and was sending infectious waves across the country, just like an epidemic. Aminah requested her family in her will to donate her organs to the local hospital. Everything they could use, and could need later. She had savings of $4000 which she wished to donate to the new special education center opening in her town. She also requested the mayor to create a special holiday on which people would only care for each other selflessly, in any possible way.



The town of Canterfeild had observed this day for the past four years and were planning to take the day out of their town. Plans were underway, on this special holiday. The mayor and the townspeople had invited the senator of New Mexico, to consider their plea: Declare 6th of December a Being H U M A N Day. A holiday when all residents of the area, reach out to people around them and help them. This help could be a word of kindness or an act. It could be worth a cent or a day of their time. On this day, they have to be simply human. Media and the press had to play a major role in shaping the events of the day. While the discussions were rife with contradictions and encouragements, Aminah’s family travelled to a new location each year. This year they chose a poor neighborhood downtown of New Mexico. They took with them Canterfeild’s year long donations of surplus home, long life food items, books, stationary, garments and warm blankets. They tried to move further from home, to extend Aminah’s legacy and her wish in the will.