Are we special? Do we matter? If we do, for what purpose? Today I watched Animal Planet; on the program, I watched as they looked at the smartest of the Animal Kingdom; Apes, monkeys, dolphins, whales, parrots. Each one “smarter” than the last, in the end we seemed to triumph over the rest. Look at the human race, Homo sapiens, top of the food chain. We won because we use our intelligence to consume, to beat the rest. We have history, literature, communication. We can connect like no other and our worldview is unmatched. But how do we know? What makes us so sure that we are the best of the best? I mean humans giving themselves the big gold trophy? Some ego.

We compare ourselves to animals when we can’t even fully tell who’s the smartest of our own. We look at ants as the small insignificance that crawls and scavenges our crumbs and dirty things. “Look at them. How stupid”; we say, and yet together, ants win because of their unity. They live worldwide just like us. They build societies and even have a hierarchy like we do. But they’re not “smart”. We are, after all, unique. Special! So let’s look at our closest relatives. Chimps. They are very similar to people. In fact their DNA is 98.9% similar to our own, so why are they less than us? We say, “Well that 1.1% is 'Us'! It’s that difference that makes 'Us' great!” That’s a bit sad isn’t it? How so little makes us so much better. 1.1 percent stopped us from eating beetles and living in jungles. Now, some of these jungle-dwellers are actually quite capable, they can make tools and groups of their own and the brightest of their kind can actually communicate! They have sign language, but our toddlers can do that. So, we just watch in amusement as the chimp tries its hardest. But, let’s say out there in the vastness of the universe there lives a race of aliens that considers themselves to be the smartest. In fact their DNA has a 1.1% difference to our own. Can you imagine that?  Beings so smart that we could never catch up. In fact imagine if they took our smartest (Steven Hawking) and they said, “Alright, this is the smartest human, He can do calculus in his head and knows everything there is to know on Black Holes. He basically writes their math books.” They’d look at the poor guy and laugh! “Well my 4 year old child can do that too!” To them we are jungle dwellers just discovering fire and tools. We are to them as Monkeys are to us. Smart, but never smart enough.

So my question to you is: what if intelligent life is out there but we just haven’t seen them because they saw us first. What if they determined that we were not intelligent, and not worth their time? We don’t even stop to see if the beetles can communicate. You can only learn so much from the lowly crawly things. So is that our place in the universe? To be egotistical specks of dust? Are we really special? Are you special? Well, yes. We are the only kind in our universe, our individuality sets us apart. And there will never be another thought or person just like you anywhere else. You are unique. You are special. Everything that we can see is unique.

Now, it seemed like with this ending I seemed to contradict everything I’ve said. How are we special if we aren’t smart? When we can’t even decide what matters and what doesn’t?  Well, the truth of the matter is, what I say doesn’t matter. What free thinkers say doesn’t matter. And what some mysterious beings think doesn’t matter. Because right now, you are the person that determines what’s important and what’s not. Your life is so spontaneous, so “once-in-a-million” that anything that you include in it will automatically become important. Because you experienced it. You are the variable that makes things relevant. After reading this, think about what is important. What are your goals? Did you wake up happy? Are you pleased with your life? If you were to die tomorrow, would you be happy with what you’ve done so far? All of these questions matter and at the same time they do not. So the questions we need to ask are not: Are we special? Are we smart? Does any of this matter? The big question that needs to be asked is, “What do you think?”