Why Mediocrity is Anything But....

There's a scene in the movie Labyrinth where the Goblin King changes the terms of his bargain by moving time forward. Sarah exclaims, "It's not fair!" The goblin King replies, "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis of comparison is." When we think we're mediocre, who are we comparing ourselves to? We usually compare ourselves to our peers. We forget everything that happened to make us who we are today. We forget the struggles of our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, the cavemen, the monkeys, the fucking fish that we used to be once upon a time, and the pile of sludge that once was life on earth. We forget the billions and billions of years that it took to make humans. We forget the struggle to get to the top, where we ARE. You and me, mediocre humans, are at the top of the game across eons and light years. We're not mediocre. Flawed, yes, but not mediocre. Fuck that. We're fucking special.

I can't stop here, though. It's not the whole story.

We are a part of the earth. We are made up of the air we breathe, the food we eat, the moment in space, the bacteria that surround us. Without our fellow travelers, we don't exist. We're not the only ones who are intensely important. Animals, plants, clean air, and microbes are intensely important. We don't work without all of our pieces. Are we even separate at all?

So..., we're (plants, earth, air, animals, fish, people, etc.) all extremely necessary, but people are at the top of the evolutionary chain? If our dominance doesn't mean we're more important, what does it mean? A rich person isn't more important than I am. Someone better at sports than me is not more inherently worthy. Someone smarter than me doesn't deserve any more happiness than I do. What do our superior skills grant us? Spider Man once said, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

That's part of it.

It's also an opportunity. We could argue that we know more than anyone or anything has ever known before in the past billions of years. True or not, we do have a great opportunity. We do have a shot to learn about what the world truly is and to improve our lives and the lives of others. A precious human birth is so rare. There are around 8.7 million species on earth, and only 1 human species. Of us humans, how many of us have the means, the mental ability, and the energy to learn and help others? How many of us are focused on simply making it through the day? How many of our eyes glaze over when difficult topics come up? Not everyone has the money to see a therapist or have the mental or physical fortitude to do the inner work. Not everyone has access to the library archives or great teachers or, if they did, could understand what's in them. The ability to fix our suffering is precious, not just because we can end the suffering, but because the chance to do that is so rare. When a precious human birth is so rare, it needs to be cherished and not taken for granted. Buddhists say that humans are the only ones who can achieve liberation.

What would you give for freedom?