On the Search for Understanding

Is it possible to come to understand what it means to be human? It seems that it would take lifetimes to even know which questions to ask, and if an infinite number of subsequent lifetimes might eventually cause us to arrive at some kind of an answer or explanation, it seems likely that this explanation will be as complicated as the question; as complicated as the subject that we begin with. Imagine a huge stadium, with a single pole standing in the center of it, and all the lights shut off. If individual after individual comes to the stadium and throws a stick in an attempt to hit the pole, he will neither know whether he has actually succeeded in hitting it (for it is dark and it is so far away), nor will he know what to do with himself after he has hit it. Furthermore, if an individual thinks to turn on a light, it will most likely be long after many sticks have been thrown into the stadium, obstructing the view of the pole altogether. If the pole symbolizes knowledge, then an attempt to come to know it will result in repeated attempts but confusion as to whether contact has been made. If the pole is exposed, it will be so cluttered in "sticks" thrown at it by humans that its true nature will be veiled anyhow. This is a poor analogy, but to some degree it illustrates the idea. The explanation of what human nature is will thus require another series of explanations, and so on (if you will, a figurative digging through the sticks), and by the time some kind of success is achieved, human nature will have changed so much that the results will not be accurate anyhow, nor will they be representative of human nature (unless there are those constants that remain true from generation to generation, not varying in degree and never shifting). A system as complicated as the system of the human being (mind, body, and soul) cannot be examined or understood except with a system equally complex, and it seems that, even if the desired result were to be achieved by way of millions of human beings working on answering different parts of the question ("What does it mean to be human"), there might not even a mind so advanced as to be able to comprehend and fathom this answer in all its complexities. The answer might be clear, but so complex that it makes no sense to us, although we have aided in reaching it through our work on various aspects of it. It seems likely that all the tools are here for us, and all the necessary answers provided, but it is too much for us to begin to understand the ways in which they all connect to one-another. Perhaps this complexity, and our inability to comprehend it except by the application of equally-complex-procedures or processes, is human nature itself, and perhaps in this way it is simple: Human nature is to be aware of the limits of its scope of understanding and yet to attempt to understand things anyhow; to attempt to break out of the constraints of the self and the constraints of society. This in itself is arguably something that not all humans undertake, for some seem to favor comfortability. And even if an individual does come to understand, perhaps it will be more on an intuitive level than anything else, and thus it will be impossible to express or explain to others. Furthermore, perhaps something about the nature of total and complete understanding leads the individual to be secretive about it; to see that there is no value in sharing the "secret" of existence with others (or even to see fault or danger in doing so). If this is the case, those who achieve ultimate understanding may never share what they know, unless they have conflicted interests that create a want for money and understanding both, but I find it unlikely that such a person with such divided interests will be able to come to understand much of anything at all.