SPECIALNESS #1...(of a series)

The impetus that drives all human activity--including thought--is the desire to be special. To be special is the need to escape, to rise far above from, the 'madding crowd; to be singularly differentiated from the rest of the great mass of common humanity. It gives rise to cults of celebrity, video postings on You Tube, athletes seeking to be isolated from the rest of the team in the TV shot of their gorilla-like chest pumping after scoring a touchdown, and naming our children after Presidents and film stars.

This desire to be uniquely 'special' in our human activities is obvious in many other everyday attempts, to have the biggest car, to win awards, to marry wealthy or beautifully; but I also believe the impetus to 'feel special' drives and underscores all religious beliefs (we are not just humans; we are special: sons and daughters of one God--as a corollary, our God...our Prophet...is better than your God or Prophet); democratic politics (even though humankind lives demonstrably widely disparate and unequal socio-economic lives--we say all men are created equal; one man, one vote, etc.), and sex (especially in climax, where the quest for human specialness originates: in the release of millions of initially undifferentiated sperm seeking unique success with one quintessentially special egg so that the successful participants in conception can live now forever through the progeny's genes). Now if that isn't feeling special nothing is!

More to come...intermittantly...(double pun intended).