Being the best

Why are we always looking for the best, always looking to classify? Why can't there be many good people, why does one writer have to be better than the rest or one actor better than the rest?

In Tuedays With Morrie, Mitch Albom relates an incident where Morrie shouts, "We're No. 2" at a basketball game, wondering why being No. 2 is all that bad.

You saw how disappointed Portugal was on losing the Euro 2004 cup final to Greece. Granted, they lost a golden chance to win the cup, but they had never made a final of any major championship. They always stumbled in the semi-final. You'd think they'd be happy about that. Nope, that happiness was fleeting and soon the entire country expected the cup.

The glory with being the best is at best (no pun intended) ephemeral. It's lonely at the top, as the cliche goes. Why can't we be second best?

As Natalie Goldberg writes in Writing Down the Bones, I am good and she is good too. Ain't nothing wrong with that logic I think.