What’s wrong in being Number Two

Ok i am going to tell you a small story first as it is essential to understand this post  .This is for those who have not read the book “Tuesdays with Morrie ”

This novel tells the true story of retired sociology professor Morrie Schwartz and his relationship with his students. On his graduation, Mitch Albom, the narrator, tells his favorite professor, Morrie Schwartz, that he will keep in touch. However, Mitch hears nothing of his old professor until one night on T.V. when he sees Morrie being interviewed. It turns out that Morrie has developed ALS, a terminal disease, and is in a wheelchair. Mitch begins to visit his professor and soon realizes that, though he has grown remarkably, he still has a lot to learn from Morrie. Both the film and the book chronicle the lessons about life that Mitch learns from his professor.

Source :Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuesdays_with_Morrie)

I have never truly understood our obsession with these thee worlds :“First,Best,Top “.Though half our lives we spend running around these words,i doubt that many of us truly understand its true meaning .We are told by parents and teachers  to top exams and be nothing but the topper.We want nothing but the best for us and we  want to be Number One in whatever we do .Perfect “wants” right !!! Yet after  we have all these we end up being sad,miserable and lonely feeling not exactly like how a person at “the Top ” is anticipated to feel.

Well in this post i dare to try  my luck with this very question :Why are we obsessed with “First,Best,Top ” ?

Anyone who has read “Tuesdays by Morrie ” can’t remain unaffected by it.By the end of the book ,we feel like there is a little bit of Morrie in each of us,that is how Morrie lives among us today,alive in his principles and  teachings .In one incident Mitch mentions how one day when the game is being played ,the whole stadium is filled with crowd  shouting “we are Number One !!! We are Number One !!! “.Suddenly Morrie stood up and says aloud ” Why ,what’s wrong in being Number Two ?”.The whole crowd is silenced,stupefied.No one had had an answer. 🙂 How could they ? They had never given the question a thought.The question was so plainly simple yet powerful  that it became oblivious , and stumped everyone .

We often run the Rat-Race so blindly that we forget to ask ourselves “What’s wrong in being Number Two ?”

I was getting down from the bus today when i saw long  before the bus reached ,a  long queue of people waiting near the door.There was nothing special about today.It was just another day.But people were in a hurry.Hurry to get down “first “.No one  wanted to come last even though no one asked them to race and there was no prize.A little order could save lot of chaos,but who wanted order anyway ?

Everyone i see around me this pattern repeats: Elevators,bus stops,shopping malls  or eateries. Evey one is running for their lives !

Life is one mad race ! Funny thing is if we only stop and ask the essential question,we will not run at all. Often we run because we want to impress parents,teachers,families etc by being on the top and we slowing start lying to ourselves saying this is happiness,this is fun. Also often we want the best because it satisfies our Ego.Proves that we are better than him or her or this or that person. That is what we wanted to prove  right ?That we are  superior .This time  again we lie to our selves saying this is true happiness,this is what we wanted .

When i was a kid ( yeah,,can you believe i was a kid too once ,and now i am like 420 :)),my mother used to pick me up from school,specially during exams.I was the last kid to come out after everyone moved out and the gatekeeper was about to close .She always asked me ” Why can’t you come out like the other kids early ? Why are you the last one to come out always “.Truth be told,i have  always been afraid of crowds .But more over i hated the mad rush.Honestly could never understand one thing :” The school  gate was hardly 10 mins from the classroom then why rush?” Probably it gave everyone some sort of relief that the day had come to an end and they could now go back home,but woun’t they reach home anyway.Or for those who had a bad day with their exam  ,it probably gave them a false sense of escape that the worse part was over.Anyway ,i guess i will never know.Point is ,they all seemed happy to run in a mad race to reach home,where they would reach anyway.Strange !

I do not say that coming first is a bad thing or no one should try to be the best.Of course they should ,but often what happens is that we lose the very motive . I believe if we love a subject then we will top,and what happens even if we don’t we would still love it just as much.We have misplaced our reasons pretty badly.”Love ” has been replaced by “Judgement” .We are afraid of being judged poorly by the rest of the world .

Someone once told me “You have to be number one ,because no one knows number two .How many do you think  knows who is the world’s second richest man ?”

Morrie would have  replied :How does it even matter ? If you are happy and if you doing what you love to do, how does it even matter what the rest of the world thinks .Its your life not theirs ,then why should you measure your life by their yard-stick,on their principles  .

There is nothing wrong with being first ,competitiveness they say is good but a health competition is needed.I think the world today is obsessed with these words:”First,Best,Top”.Have we ever stopped like Morrie and asked ourselves “Why ? What is wrong in being number two ?”

If we do i am sure half our problems will go away ,because as it happens to be ,often we want to be number one not because we want to be there but because we want others to see us there :”At the top of the Pyramid  !!! “.I am not saying don’t top your class,what i am saying is :Give yourself a reason better than your ego boost and your other’s opinion about you.If you really wanna top,by God ,do it,if that is what makes you happy.If you enjoy the subject,and had fun with it – then i am sure the rest will follow !!!!

We want to look good in others eyes,be popular and there is nothing wrong with that as long as it does come at the cost of your conscience.So don’t murder it at the altars of the world’s sick customs.

Its not all our  fault.We are taught by the so called modern society of ours that this is what our live is supposed to be.That we are supposed to make money,run for the first prize and then you will be happy.That is all that ,matters.No one teaches us to break the pattern so the dogma continues.

Well one of us is wrong and at the risk of sounding imperious i must say The World is “Mad”.It judges strength of character by the money-load in your pockets,substituted Blind Race for ” Love ” ,replaced “hon our ” with ego  and judges a man by his color of skin instead of his wisdom.

As the band Aerosmith popularly sang

“Living on the Edge”

There’s somethin’ wrong with the world today

I don’t know what it is

Something’s wrong with our eyes

We’re seeing things in a different way

And God knows it ain’t His

It sure ain’t no surprise

Morrie would asked us to follow up our destiny ! Well ,all the best to all my friends and buddies who wish to run in this Rat-Race.I guess Morrie here would have asked ” Are you really happy and satisfied with what you are in life now ?” but guess once we have learn t to suppress our conscience,the Morrie dies there some where too strangled,unless we are left at 80 ,unable to move and staring Death on our face,then only do we dare ask such questions,else its too “Philosophical ” for the modern us .

I will take my chances,i was never good at races anyway !But if you ever find an answer to this question drop me a comment to this post or email me : “Whats wrong in being number two ?”.

-Ranjan
(Thank you so much for reading !!!Any coincidences with Tuesdays with Morrie is “not coincidental “.In fact i have can’t  live without quoting Morrie anymore.He lives inside my head.Mitch has written such an amazing book that he made us feel as we all knew Morrie just as well as he did.If you have not read the book,i highly recommend it )