No two lives are alike. No two lives are intended to be.
Comparing one life to another on a few points to draw conclusions about fairness and equality is skimpy logic. No two children in their conception, birth and upbringing, even by the same parents in the same house, can have or should have the same experience. Many circumstances, controllable and uncontrollable, affect the entirety of each person's life. This is even true for identical twins.
Most of the time when we compare one life to another, we look at either the good or the bad, one side or the other, but rarely both. We also tend to look at a small snapshot of time rather than the entirety of the person's current life and the lives that continue through the person and the lives interacted with. There is much more to comparing one life to another than just looking at a list of areas to compare. Analysis must transcend Giri So assessment and become critically extensive.
Do you wish your life was like somebody else's? Look around you. Don't you know someone else wishes they could trade their life for yours? Especially the person who is no longer physically here? There are so many situations and circumstances that could be our experience but is not. We have any number of ailments, family situations, living in areas where bombs are daily occurrences, wages are less than $3 a day, basic needs are scarce, etc.
This article should not be misconstrued as an endorsement for unequal treatment and unequal consideration against individuals or groups.
Truth is, comparisons are supposed to happen to help us in constructive ways. Far too often we allow incomplete comparisons to affect us destructively. Since comparing one life to another is going to happen anyway, at a minimum, when comparing one person to another, contrast should also be used. Contrast by looking at things from different sides, angles, in general, specifically, overall and in detail. We should compare and contrast similarities and differences. We should seek to answer more questions about each area such as Why, When, How, etc. This does not mean we must make exhaustive comparisons. It means we must cast a larger net in order to compare all the major factors. There are several major factors often forgotten when making comparisons. One of these is historical influences.
Ultimately, well-grounded comparisons start with self compared to the natural world, the Creator, the Maatian philosophy, purposes and other healthier comparisons.
If, for the moment, we allow ourselves to consider groups as individuals, Africans must not compare themselves to Europeans or other groups without understanding the impact of our Utamawazos. For example, an African following a European Utamawazo who compares self to Europeans following an European Utamawazo will be woefully offtrack when making comparisons, if the nature of the African Utamawazo and European Utamawazo are not properly understood.
We are again reminded:
“To expect Europeans living in an Ice Age culture, to operate as if they lived in a tropical country would be not dealing with reality. To expect the lifestyle of a man in the Ice Age to have the same moral values compared to a man coming from the sun climate would be opposite to reality.”
No two lives are alike. This is even true for two: hydrogen atoms, grains of wheat, blades of grass, ants, bees or flowers on the same plant. To keep it as simple as possible, we'd all be much better off if we compared our own personal individual starting point to where we are now. What have we done with what we had to work with from the beginning and every step of the way? Compare self to self - at the beginning and various points along the way to life right now. How do these stages compare?
