Dolly Koghar gives her generation’s perspective on what makes us human.

“Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions”: an accurate observation by some wise soul, as to why we make, and regrettably continue to make, mistakes. Then, rather than exhibiting maturity in facing the consequences, which would also be an eye-opener to the ‘why’ behind we did it, thus reducing the likelihood of repeating the error, we slink behind the excuse of, “I’m just human.” Consequently, rather than expanding ourselves to our full potential as the only animals with higher reasoning, we accept ourselves as bumbling fools.

We’ve had ‘mistakes’ that invented things, like the microwave, while others backfired into becoming the worst destructive discovery, like the atom bomb. Christopher Columbus’ navigational error allowed him to discover America; to cover up his blunder, he insulted both the magnificent locals, the real Americans, and us Indians, by calling them “Red Indians.” Or we can go even further back and look at Pontius Pilot’s ‘mistake’, which was sending the Son of God, the Messenger, a Guru, to a fate worse than death, however much he was instrumental in fulfilling Christ’s role as a sacrificial lamb.

What else have our mistakes wrought? We’re suffering through global warming, and schools are no longer safe, because any kid gone crazy can buy a gun and snuff out other lives, along with their own future. Planet Earth is our one and only home, and yet we shamelessly and wantonly continue to strip the soil and cut down life-giving trees. We turn away from any plan to reduce carbon emissions and industrial growth, and refuse to acknowledge the resulting waste and pollution, or the ever-growing mountains of unrecyclable products; all in the name of modernisation and endless growth, masking greed and stupidity.

But maybe, the biggest miscalculation ever, was by our Biggest Boss up there, who created us thinking He could love Himself through us. However, we turned around and said, “I think, therefore I am.” I exist because I think, not because I was created to think! So now, with the advent of AI, what fate awaits us?

Anyway, here is what we senior mortals think constitutes as a ‘mistake’:

• “Something you do without realising or really meaning to; only to regret later.”

• “The off-the-cuff meaning for mistake is: an action or evaluation/error in judgement, whether physical, mental or emotional, which brought about unintended negative results or consequences.”

• “There cannot be one definition for a mistake. A mistake can be a deed that is not appropriate for the matter at hand. A mistake can be an act that is thought to be fitting for the moment but subsequently proved to be incorrect. Then, there are the mistakes made due to omission or oversight. Therefore, a mistake can be defined as an act or it can be a subsequent judgement of a prior action or non-action.”

• “A mistake is a moment of introspection; of facing truth and awareness that one could’ve done better. But coming face to face with your truth will need a lot of courage.”

• “A mistake: often irreparable, but hopefully forgivable.”

• “Mistakes = experience.”

• “Doing things which are not correct, even unknowingly; a mistake is a mistake.”

• “A lesson learnt.”

• “As per spiritual masters, making the same mistake again and again and again, without learning, is what truly constitutes as a mistake!”

• “A mistake is something that happens and something you can acknowledge responsibility for and learn from. If you ignore it or don’t learn from it, then it’s not a mistake; it’s deliberate.”

• “To regard or identify something or someone wrongly, mistakenly; to understand, interpret, or evaluate wrongly; to misunderstand or misinterpret!”

• “Mistakes are exactly that, ‘missed takes.’ No one makes mistakes knowingly; steps to move forward are taken, with the intention to do right. But to err is human and it’s only on hindsight which reveals them as ‘missed-takes’. Wrong steps that were intentionally taken are not, in my opinion, mistakes.”