Never Enough

The Top Ten Movies of the Year.
Heroes Among Us - 2009.
The Best Books of the Decade.
Inventions that Revolutionized 2009.
Most Accomplished Athletes.

These are the headlines we see plastered all over the place as the year winds to an end. The Best - The Most. In order to be someone, you have to BE SOMEONE.

What about the parents who have ordinary jobs, make a modest salary, watch TV each night, but love their children and raise them to feel like they are special regardless of the accomplishments they're SUPPOSED to have achieved?

Or what about the college student who gets B's in every subject, plays the clarinet in the marching band, is overweight, has few friends, but somehow still makes it through each day with a moderate amount of self-esteem?

Or even what about that girl who waitresses two jobs and does ecstasy at night and really doesn't accomplish anything?

We don't celebrate mediocrity. We eschew it. We'd never put it in the paper or write a human interest story about it. We are all "Everyman". Just we won't accept it. We suffocate our children with stories telling them that if they're not the best, then they're not good enough. We've created a culture where less than perfect is unacceptable. We medicate ourselves to deal with this inadequacy. We draw up short term goals to make ourselves feel like we have a place in the world.

Accomplish, produce, climb higher and higher.

I'd rather just see a world where we all love each other.