Humanist Perspectives: Don’t Hide Your Humanism

This post is part of our Humanist Perspectives series. In this series, we invite guest contributors to explore active humanism and what it means to be a thoughtful, engaged member of society. Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Don’t Hide Your Humanism
by Jen Hancock

I had a really great experience today that I want to share with you. I was at the local museum with my son and when I was answering his questions about rifling in cannons (long story) and two women with young kids looked at me and said “she’s seems to be smart and know a lot of stuff, we need to hang out with her.” So, we did. They had a boy about the same age as my son and they got along well and my son delighted in showing him around the museum.

But here is what was really cool, aside from meeting some people who are excited to meet someone who is clearly a geek in a museum. While we were watching the kids explore the discovery center, the grandmother asked me what I did and I told her–I’m a writer. About what? Humanism. I told her about my book–and she said it sounded wonderful. So far so good. Emboldened, I told her that my book is in use at the Royal Military College of Canada. She then turned to me and told me she was going to tell her son about the book because he is a colonel in the Coast Guard and he would probably like to know about the book. Wow! So, chance meeting in a museum, I’m open about my humanism and not only do they not shy away and politely excuse themselves, they are interested in helping me promote humanism in the US military!

Read the rest of this post at Happiness Through Humanism.

Jen Hancock is a writer, speaker, and humanist. She seeks to promote humanism by making it relevant to the very real problems people face every day. The central theme to her writing is about how being a good person has benefits here and now and how approaching life as a humanist can actually help people become happier, more productive citizens of the world.