The Rival

Have you ever had a competitor in something? If you're saying no, and you're a human being, then I'm not exactly sure if I have any good news for you, or maybe you just don't know. The truth is ever since we've existed, even before our birth we've competed.

You've competed with the other spermatozoa to get to that fertile egg.

You've competed with your siblings for food, toys and attention.

You've competed with life issues for survival each day.

You even compete with gravity - every day that you stand up again.

There's a lot of competition all around us all but I would rather prefer to keep to the topic of this post instead of having one of my usual branching moments.

"What exactly is this rivalry?" and "What is its use in our lives?" you may wonder. It's not exactly a simple question to answer I think but I'll so my best as usual to elaborate on it. I guess you could see it as a step to overcome. One thing I should probably clarify before I begin though is that "rivalry" and "competition"  aren't the same thing.

Competition is vested in rivalry but they aren't the same. Rivalry is specific and competition is not. Rivalry makes use of competition and it's inherent persistence in our nature and competition only leads to rivalry, and even at that - not even all the time.

I have a friend - my best friend even - who I'm rivals with. No we don't have super powered kung fu sword fights or the like, but we acknowledge each other as relevant equals to be noticed and aware of. Everyone wants to be the greatest or the best in something, or at least to be good in something - especially something that interests them. If you don't have anything that interests you in life. I have good news and bad news. Bad news - "For only the the dead want for nothing". The good news is that you can have Jesus in your life to fix that all up. No. I'm not saying that if you don't want something you're a zombie or that you're dead. I'm just trying to tell you that you need to take a critical look at yourself from different perspectives to see the truth hidden in plain sight. Moving on...

So as I was earlier saying - My friend and I are basically rivals but we're not enemies. Another misunderstanding of that word rival is the word/concept enmity. However it doesn't need to be that way. That's the negative form of competition. Instead of stepping each other's game upwards you tread on each others toes. The aim of rivalry should be to "step up" not to "step on". My friend encourages me, as I do for him, to work hard to not let myself get under his shadow. If one of us is slacking it becomes easily obvious and we pick up the pace and step up. It helps us to keep motivated and inspired.

I suggest everyone should try to get a rival - a positive one at that - one that helps you keep your game stepped up. I'll end with a short poem as usual and I'll post again km the negative aspect of rivalry on a part two of this post.

Is it really me and you or is it me vs you

Is it the people that we be or the things that we do

That make us against them and them against us

Make us and ourselves, together, fight and fuss

It seems we can't still separate the friendship that we've twirled

It's me and you, yes just us two, against the very world....

Let's be the positive factor.
Love, stars and Rivals.