Without Comparison Everything Loses It’s Meaning
There is great joy that I experience whenever my
granddaughter sits on my lap and we watch one of her movies together. She has
not yet outgrown the bright eyed curiosity that goes with being four years old.
Therefore I find myself regularly responding to an ample number of WHY
questions. The latest question appeared as we watched a movie and she curiously
asked why there are always good guys and bad guys. My answer was as
philosophical as I could be with a four year old. It rang something like, “we
need the bad guys in the world in order for us to know what a good guy looks
like. If we had no bad guys we would never know how good a good guy was.” That
answer brought a confused look from my granddaughter and an even more
interesting look from my wife sitting on the other end of the couch.
I recently saw the quote – Without Comparison Everything
Loses It’s Meaning, and it caught my attention enough that I wrote it on a
post-it note and stuck it where I would see it every day as I sat at my
computer. I have noticed it many times and found that each time it caused me to
pause, even for just an instant, to reflect on my own perspective about
comparison. Recently the note has lost most of its stickiness and falls to the
floor causing me to pick it up and spend more than a passing moment in
reflection. I count it as coincidence that it happened again as I offered the
bad guy, good guy explanation to Reese.
I grew up with the challenge of distain for comparison and a
quiet, reserved desire for it. How was I doing in comparison to those around
me? I recognize that I have spent most of my life running right down the middle
with most everything. Never really standing out at either end of the bell
curve. I clearly remember graduating from high school ranked number 202 out of
a class of 404, a perfect example of being hidden in the middle of the curve. When
I started this new year afresh and back on the treadmill at my gym I caught
myself glancing at the guys on either side of me checking to make sure my
screen was not advertising weak numbers. If it was, I was ready to kick it up a
few notches in case either of them were to notice and compare.
I wonder if the world is overly focused on comparing or that
comparison may be the lifeblood of our existence. I believe I am moving
slightly off the middle toward the end that suggests - that without comparison
everything loses its meaning. How does comparing serve you? Is it serving the
good or the evil in you?
