Play Your Way Sane by Clay Drinko

Author:Clay Drinko
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tiller Press
Published: 2021-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

LESSON 7 Your Mom Was Wrong

(You Aren’t Special)

Now, this lesson is going to seem to go against what many people are brought up to think. I know I was told over and over how special I was.

I mean, turn on most kids’ shows, and they’re constantly talking about how special each and every one of us is.

Unfortunately, this message isn’t as clear as I think it should be. In reality, we’re all equally special. No one is more or less special than anyone else.

Exceptionalism is a great way to turn your kid into an asshat. Yes, we all have strengths, but no one is better than anyone else.

Another way to say the same thing is that no one is special. If we’re all equally great, then no one is great. There’s no ranking, no list, no winner.

It feels sacrilegious to even be typing this, but you’re not special!

You are a part, just one tiny part, of something much bigger and more powerful than an individual special you.

You are one of many in your family, community, and world. Your needs are no more or less important than anyone else’s.

So stop thinking that you’re special, that you’re more important, or that your contributions are more valuable than anyone else’s.

Instead, take a lesson from our ant friends. They all just perform their role. Ants don’t think about their individual exceptionalism. They simply act for the good of the group.

The complexity of the ant society, why humans feel compelled to keep ant houses, is a result of the group interactivity.1 An ant, on her own, is a failure. Her heroic journey for food may never result in her finding anything. If she didn’t have her ant peeps, she might die in vain.

But because millions of ants are all on this same heroic journey, inevitably one of them finds food. She stays there. Another ant stumbles upon the food and then another and another. Now there are a few little ant trails leading somewhere. Soon thousands of ants are streaming toward this food source. The group is what matters and what creates greatness and complexity.

I think humans are at their best when we think more like ants. We aren’t special. We are just on a heroic ant journey looking for food… or contentment… or money… or happiness… or love.

But sometimes we don’t find it. If we don’t give up our exceptionalism and defer to the good of the group, we may die in vain.

So let’s practice thinking of ourselves as one among many.

And stop thinking of the world revolving around our own axis.

That’s too much pressure on you, and it isolates you from everyone else… who is equally as lovely and special as you are.

For simplicity’s sake, once again, you are not, and never have been, special.

Got it?

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