Figuring out what I wanna be when I grow up.
Oop..I AM grown up...


Saturday, June 12, 2010

Are We Really Unique?


Okay, well there's the old fingerprint there that means we're unique...

Recently I've been thinking about us silly humans, and wondering if we're really all that unique. Okay, it's a given that we all come with our our own unique (I've almost said "unique" enough for the word to lose all meaning) genetic makeup, and we have our own fingerprints to identify us, and nobody looks and thinks exactly like I do (unless there's another whiny, cynical, chubby, procrastinating, discontented homemaker/mom out there with a burnt out thyroid, who likes to unscramble word jumbles, roll meatballs and go mildly bananas when she notices other people who still haven't learned that 'their,' 'there,' and 'they're' really do have their own unique place in the grammatical world, and that 'I seen,' will never be the right way to say it..but I digress).

The point is, we all do so much of the same damn stuff, that I wonder just how original we are. I used to have a friend who was a philosophy zealot. He had written for anyone who cared to read his profile page; "you are not unique." I felt all up in arms about that--defensive, and protective of my own self-importance, and self-supposed uniqueness. "Am too!" I wanted to shout.

So then, once again, I took a few things into consideration, beginning with our own beginnings. Babies. My Mom loved babies. Loved, loved, love them. She used to tell me that the reason why women (especially those who've been lucky enough to have children) love babies so much is because they "all do the same things, and so it reminds you of your own kids when they were babies." Hm...it's true though. We all do particular things around particular ages, give or take a few months here or there. For example, at a certain point of development, a baby will point at objects around him or her, in order to express interest. It's super cute, but it's a given: at a certain age in your life, you liked something so you pointed at it. I have to say though that this does bring up a whole n'other argument about uniqueness, because my son never pointed at anything when he should have been pointing at things. Does this mean that being a member of the Autism Spectrum club rendered him "unique?" Or is he actually still not unique, because kids who live with various degrees of "Autism" typically don't point at objects...hm...this hurts my brain...

ANYHOO,

I used to work as a cashier in a casino. Incidentally, I have to always punctuate this by stating it was a truly heinous and repulsive job, and if I ever have to serve the general public again, I will probably stick a pen in my eye at some point. I cashed in slot machine tokens, exchanged money, cashed in some poker chips, etc, etc. Over and over again, people would say that same stupid crap, and act like they were the first person to come up with it. I can't tell you the number of times, as a bus tour would be about to leave, the people cashing out would say to me: "Gotta go, gotta catch a bus!" Seriously. Over and over again:
"Gotta go, gotta catch a bus!"
"Gotta go, gotta catch a bus!"
"Gotta go, gotta catch a bus!"
"Gotta go, gotta catch a bus!"
"Gotta go, gotta catch a bus!"
You can only smile and nod so many times people. And then there was St. Patrick's Day. It must be noted at this point that our uniform shirts were GREEN. So, imagine a million happy-slappy @$$holes coming to buy or cash in tokens at my window and saying; "I see you got [sic] YOUR green on!" Over, and over, and over again. Every one of them thought they had invented a new, super funny joke. It was pointless to say; "I have to wear this. It's a uniform." Instead, I smiled, nodded, and died just a little bit more inside.

I've also been thinking about the stages of grief. If you "google" the "stages of grief," you will be given your pick of about 540,000 results. If you're interested, you can go here: and learn all about the stages of grief. The point is, these feelings we have when we are experiencing intense grief, are so typical, they can be outlined into 5 distinct, succinct stages. My dad has been going for grief counselling, and recently went to his first group meeting. So guess what happened; one person said that since the death of his/her spouse/loved one, he/she has been SOOOOO TIRED. Everyone in the group nods their head, eyes widen; "ME TOO!" Someone else: "I've been having trouble concentrating, and completing the simplest task." Everyone else: "ME TOOOO!" Another person: "I feel like I'm going crazy." Everyone else--well, you get the picture.

So right now we're all saying to ourselves, "I am too unique! I like coffee with chemical whitener in it and brown sugar, and everyone else likes cream or milk, so NYAH!" Yes, yes, we all have our little differences, but I have to wonder if we are really any different from that colony of tiny black ants THAT WON'T GET THE EFF OUT OF MY KITCHEN NO MATTER HOW I SWEEP THEM UP, OR VACUUM THEM, OR PUT CINNAMON BY ALL THEIR ENTRYWAYS, OR PUT DOWN THAT LIQUID POISON FOR THEM TO BRING BACK TO THEIR QUEEN AND WIPE OUT THE WHOLE COLONY...

sorry. I wonder if we're any different from a colony of ants, scrambling around, keeping busy, simply existing. Cynical? Probably.

Still, every time I want to wallow in self pity, and say; "I am sad because my mother died," there is somebody else out there who says; "ME TOOOO!"

Scramble, scramble, little ant.

9 comments:

  1. I have to agree with you Karen. I think we are all similar because we're a species. We're a very EVOLVED species, but still. You look at a group of Chimps. Sure, they have their individual differences, but so many similarities. A lot of our behaviours are (I believe) for very biological reasons. For reproducing, or so on. But, having evolved so much more than other species... that in itself makes us very unique.

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  2. Yeah i have to agree...we are all so the same. I mean since i started blogging it just blows my mind how many women out there do or have or like what i do. It so strange. I'll read a post and think oh my god this is what i do. Like as an example i like the number 5 and some woman who i follow is crazy about the number 5 and named her cottage 5th cottage its just so weird.

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  3. funny isn't it? When you go to the top of the blog page and click "next blog" you get a random pick of th blog world. What I've noticed is that there are about a zillion blogs that feature some couple, "their life, and their love." It gets a little creepy after a while.

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  4. I spend a lot of time trying to find a unique thought, or idea knowing my hunt is pointless.

    Then when you read into scientist's ideas on m-theory you realize not only are we not unique, but there is the possibility of endless copies of ourselves spanning an endless sea of alternate dimensions.

    Meaning that every possibility has, or will have happened in some form or another.

    It's deep, frustrating, but also humbling, I think.
    I just wish my alternate selves could loan me some cash.

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  5. BTW, I found your blog hitting the "Next Blog" surprised this wasn't a photo album of pets, and, kids.

    Philosophical too!?!

    Can't believe there are still such pondering thoughts on Blogger. I will follow.

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  6. I came up when you hit the "next blog" button! My god, my ME cup is overflowing! Yay! Welcome to my blog! Okay, calm down karen, this is NOT how we do things...

    Anyhow, I'm pondering now whether the thought of multiple "me's" is comforting, or disturbing...At any rate, it feels a little Star Trek-ish. That can't be bad. I guess.

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  7. god the poor person who is like me! One of me is enough!

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  8. I wouldn't mind a whole group of me--we could bake cakes.

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