Humans from a demihuman perspective

 It's been said, by myself and by many others, that the demihuman races represent particular aspects of humanity: virtues, vices, traits, and viewpoints. But what would humanity represent to the demihumans? Just for fun, let's put ourselves in the shoes of elves, dwarves, and halflings (who don't wear shoes, but it's only a metaphor, after all), and try to imagine what they'd see in us. These are, obviously, my personal takes on the subject; you may have different insights, and if so, please feel free to share them in the comments.

To elves, humans might represent mortality and the sense of urgency that comes with it. They are motivated, fired with a sense of the shortness of their time, driven to make something of their limited lives. Where an elf has literally almost all the time in the world, with centuries or millennia both behind and ahead of them, humans are the present, the now, seizing the moment, because they know they may not have many more. Of course, elves sometimes do feel motivated, struck by inspiration, moved by a sense of urgency, but it is a relatively small part of who they are. To them, humans may seem to be a living embodiment of those traits, sometimes admirably, sometimes regrettably.

As dwarves represent endurance and stability to humans, so humans to dwarves are avatars of change, whether it be in the form of predictable cycles or precipitous upheavals, and of infinite adaptability to said change. Dwarves in general don't much like change; they grudgingly accept it as a fact of reality, but even so, they often devote their lives to creating things of beauty or value that will long outlast even their very long lives. As such, they are simultaneously fascinated, a little bit horrified, and a tiny bit envious of the way in which humans seem to take constant change in stride, even to purposely instigate it, and not only survive but thrive amid it. 

Halflings tend to view humans as creatures of extremes. Halflings themselves are generally pretty mild and risk-averse, valuing comfort and contentment above all, and rarely moved to be exceptional. To the halfling mind, humans are figuratively as well as literally larger than life. They may be extremely good or extremely wicked, extremely brave or extremely craven, extremely wise or extremely thick, excellent or execrable, but whatever they are, it's seldom moderate. The larger part of the halfling psyche shakes its head and rolls its eyes at such excesses, but a small part, usually kept carefully hidden away by respectable sorts, secretly admires those human extremes, and wonders what it might be like to be great and extraordinary. Most will never acknowledge it, of course; that's a whole lot of effort and risk, after all, when one could be contentedly unexceptional and enjoy the comforts of home, good food, family and friends instead.