The Sameness Of Uniqueness

I've read somewhere, or maybe someone told me that for every person, there are seven other identical individuals in the world.

What is there in a person's identity that sets him apart from others? We like to think that we are all unique in our own way. We are all built differently, with individual features unique enough to make face recognition software, fingerprint identification and the like effective.

We are born with different temperaments, thought processes that are our very own, a very personal set of memories, emotions that carry the stamp of individuality.

In other words, no two people are exactly alike, not even identical twins, who are known to carry identical sets of genes.

But let's just step a little back from the trees, and lo and behold! It's actually a forest! Some of the trees are short and stunted, some tall, some with leaves in different hues or with colourful blossoms, but all of them are, finally, trees.

Agreed that we do find shrubs, fungi, little insects that scuttle about minding their own business. That brings us variety. Yet they all live in this world with the drive to survive. The drive of self-preservation and propagation of species exists with the same strength in all creatures living, be it plant or animal or bacteria.

All of us in this world want the same basic things - food, shelter, safety and procreation. We respond to threatening situations in similar ways- fight, flight or fright. We have similar emotions - love, anger, fear, sorrow. All creatures communicate- plants, microbes, viruses, cells- though in a different manner. They fight to survive too, and some of them are doing a very good job. For instance, we seem to be waging a losing battle against many bacteria. The ubiquitous cockroach - have we ever been able to successfully get rid of it? So come to think of it, we're not all that different after all.

We ought to be proud of our individuality, but also remember that we are not superior to others, neither other humans nor other creatures. In fact, some species may be better suited and hence further selected in the great sweep of evolution.

And that is the beauty of our world. We are individual threads in the great tapestry of life - all threads, but each one distinct in its existence, with its personal and valuable contribution to the strength and beauty of the fabric, but so closely meshed together that, in the bigger picture, individuality disappears and only the harmony of sameness remains.


Loud Speaker