My world view is very narrow. I try to expand it a bit by watching movies or reading books that cover other times and places than the one I inhabit. But one question I want the answer to is more subtle than that.
How pervasive is comparison?
Are women in rural villages measuring their own worth by gauging it against their neighbors? Does the compulsion to compete predate social media?
I suppose the first pair of siblings succumbed to rivalry. Cain and his brother were not able to coexist peacefully. The Ten Commandments devote a full twenty per cent of their attention to imploring us to resist jealousy.
It is tempting to hold up the success and failure of our marriage and parenting and career against that of friends. Of course we never honestly know the heartbeat of another person's life, but that doesn't seem to deter the tendency.
One of the endearing practices of young children is the absence of such shenanigans. Oh they watch how you put on your shoes, or address the cat, and try to mimic that. Which is how they master speech at all. Yet such emulation seems blissfully devoid of self flagellation. I have never seen a toddler berate him or herself for an inability to dance, or spell, or pay their way.
I remember taking one of my preschoolers to a bake sale, and seeing him enjoying a cookie I had not bought.
"But you didn't pay for that!"
"I don't have any money," was the guilt free reply.
What will it be like when the race is over? My picture of heaven is one in which each person is precious regardless of any fabricated calibration based on being more or less than someone else. Then we will find ourselves running for the sheer joy of being supple, and offering warm cookies to anyone who is hungry.
