In the Human Race which team are you on?

By Dan Barber

My daughter and I had a conversation the other day about whether we were poor or not. I advised her that economic advantage is always on a sliding scale. Meaning that residents in any community are divided up in the haves, have-nots, wish-we-had-more and maybe even those who wish-to-have-less.

Our community here in the Mojave Desert is the same. Many people are comfortable in what they have and can be viewed as being content. We have those who are in a rush to earn more. Then there are those who are just barely scratching out their survival and are viewed as being homeless or on the verge of being homeless. There are people who are too ill or handicapped to be able to take care of themselves. We also have those who are too lazy to earn their own living so they rely on others to provide it for them.

That conversation sparked a thought in my head that is now searching for a safe place to land among all of the cobwebs. The thought is what team do I run for in the Human Race? Can I make the roster using custom and convention through birthright; or through earned or natural talent or through the perception of others?

I think of myself as being energetically lazy. Now that I’m retired I think that I prefer to run the course of the human race mostly in the quiet solitude of my head. I’m not too concerned about material things anymore; I have my family close by, my health is OK and I have food to eat. I much prefer the silence of the desert than to the noise of large population centers. Others would disagree they need the close-by bright and noisy attractions. All I need is a shady spot to sit where I can use my own imagination for entertainment or where I can participate in another favorite pastime of watching nature such as a lizard do pushups on a hot rock…if I’m successful someone will actually check my pulse to see if I’m OK (which actually happened).

Where do I place myself in the Human Race? I consider myself as winning as others are racing past me at top speed to achieve their own goals…is that confusing to you?

Which team are you on in this Human Race? The rich, middle, or poor team; blue collar, white collar, intellectual elitist or high school dropout; what is your sexual preference; which ethnic team do you identify with? How do other Human Race team members view you? How do you want others to see you…As a man, woman or either? I want to be viewed as an American with a bunch of ethnic heritages thrown in. In a previous blog I mentioned that I had a very talented nephew who viewed himself as an American with Mexican heritage...he told his Dad that he was born here in the U.S. so he wasn't a Mexican American... he was an American first.

Then we all have other options within those team “requirements” to deal with…which are divided up by religious and political ideology and geographic locations broken down by country, state, city neighborhood, street and even directions of Northside, Southside, Eastside, Westside. Don’t forget to consider the decade we all belong to, baby boomer, millennial, etc.

If Freud were alive today he would probably opt for a different career choice, rather than trying to figure out the collective mind of the evolving human.

May you be successful in your Human Race…