A coachee once shared with me how he valued human connection. He explained it through the different acts of relationship building he engaged in and appreciated.

While I had regularly heard people talk about “human …” to describe what they considered good and expected behavior, I realized that using the word “human” in such statements didn’t make any sense.

Adding an attribute “Human …” is adding a hidden expectation to the relationship and eventually seeing oneself as better than others based on one’s “human” approach to relationships.

Humans can be understood as always striving to create something good. However, the challenge that remains is that the definition of good may widely vary. The result of these differences leads to conflicts, grief, and anxiety as much as to joyful encounters. All of which are part of human experience.

To me, the word “kind” seems to be more appropriate than human. “Respectful” could also do the job. Both allow for a more tangible description of what the person means by “human.”

I’m not sure why the word “human” received this position; a possible explanation might be that people contested that the other was kind or respectful. The word human doesn’t have such a restriction; however, it also doesn’t add any value or meaning to the sentence. It could mean anything human.