Natural selection is a colouring competition.

That Usain Bolt guy is pretty quick, he could probably out run a cheetah. That Donald Trump guy is pretty clever, he probably won a few spelling bee's in his day. That Natalie Portman lady is pretty talented, she's probably broken a few hearts in her time. The perception of first place comes in many forms and relative to the discipline in which it's born. When I was 4 years old 'Cartoon Connection' ran a mothers day competition where you had to draw a picture of your mum and send it in. Working hard at the kitchen counter one could have been mistaken to think it was a dual eared Van Gogh at work. Mothers Day came and the pieces were judged on air, there was some stiff competition but I emerged victorious! Next thing we knew Mum was sitting comfortably in a bath robe and massaging feet warmer.... you're welcome.
These days it takes a little more than luck and hard work to reach the top of your industry. Natural talent will only get you so far and then it's up to you to go the rest of the way. With 6 billion people in the world all fighting for their place on the podium, boardroom table or stage what exactly is it that takes you the rest of the way? 'Drive', 'Will', 'Guts'? All of them, probably. All underlined by the natural instinct of survival that has kept man progressing since the beginning of time. It's inherent to want to be at the top of your game whilst feeling the satisfaction and reward of your hard labour but as society progresses and survival has become simpler due to modern farming practices and medicine the goal posts have moved. There's a new instinct that is enveloping and consuming our foundation of virtue forging a new era in societal movement. The spirit of competition is now a supporting member of morality along side respect and dignity. As the global population keeps growing and successful survival rates of new born's and the ill continue's to rise it is inevitable that a new form natural selection would prosper. Hence forth with our bodies to be kept in tact the only course for natural selection to take is societal famine. With physically aggressive primal urges now regulated by law and order the competitive spirit has become the new battle weapon. Although the body takes millennia to evolve our bodies have responded to man made cultural living patterns by the human brain evolving beyond the rate of its carrier.
Clothing, music and language goes in and out of fashion all the time. In my day it was all about wanting to be a policemen or fireman, nowadays the kids are all about growing up to be an interior decorator or marine biologist. This new wave of competition could just be a passing fad. I'm often offended by the arrogance that can come with power. With the western world financially prospering over the last century came accessibility to education. As standards of living for all classes started to increase education and financial prosperity spread with the subsequent authority complex that often accompanies knowledge and wealth. Now we have generation's of kids never being told by the their parents: "No! you can not have a new pair of Nike's, you just got a pair". Only to hear back: "But, Jimmy Jones has got a pair and I need them to beat him at Basketball" It's been a while since the depression and maybe it will take another financial collapse for the world to see what competition has created.
With the rise of competition and subsequent competitive spirits now celebrated more than ever vulnerable minds can be easily influenced and exploited resulting in corrosive implications on society rather than positive growth. I often wonder what if I didn't dominate the drawing competition- how bold would I be today? So just like celebrated television host Jerry Springer and his final thought here is mine: Is the rise of the competitive spirit an evolutionary discourse or contemporary natural selection?

Step one, Step three.

Every weekday morning at 7:20am whilst rushing to work and ascending the stairs from the subway the same thought goes through my mind: "Why are my legs so bloody short?" They're too short, or too long. I'm not exactly sure but all I know is that they can make climbing stairs annoying at times. I once read that Lance Armstrong's legs had the perfect combination of bone length and muscle structure for cycling and I concluded that I had the worst combination for climbing stairs. Each step always seems to be just that little bit too big or too small for one comfortable stride. Is there an international standard for step height? Who invented it? What was their bone and muscle structure? Whoever you are (if there is such a person), you better buy some shin guards champ because I've got a pair of steel cap boots with your name on them!
Growing up I lived on a hill and our house was built on the side of said hill. Inside, the floor plan climbed up with the shape of the hill so we had a lot of stairs. So many stairs meant that you didn't want to forget anything and you were constantly loading yourself up with whatever you had to carry to ensure you didn't have to make a few trips. It was time consuming and laborious to keep stomping up and down and I had heaps better things to be doing like watching Wide World of Sports. We only had the one bathroom and it was up the top so if you were right downstairs and needed to go.... you really thought about it. They were certainly character building stairs. Once old enough and big enough I figured out it was much quicker and easier on the stride if I just skipped a step on the way up. Sure it was a little more physical effort for one stride but I feel the overall calories burnt and time spent on stairs ended up being considerably reduced. Bang! Problem solved. "See you later stairs, I've got other shit to be doing rather than hang around you all day" So from an early age I was skipping steps left right and centre. When stair climbing race stories used to come on Wide World of Sports I was enthralled with their technique, I felt if I just worked on my fitness a little I'd beat all those suckers to the finish line running up with their '1 step at a time' technique. Skipping steps soon bled into other area's of life like school. In art and math you have to show how you got to the end result. Stuff that! "Look Teach. I was here, now I'm there and I'm right so that's all you need to know". (Hot tip: don't call your teacher 'Teach')
Strangely enough I wasn't always right, no one is always right and without following the right procedure from the beginning you can't see where you went wrong. Skipping steps in the process can set bad habits for out side the classroom. It's only Math and Art, who cares right? But that skipping step mentality meant I never 'just worked on my fitness a little' because I was always looking for a way to skip ahead. As a time deprived society we are always looking for that short cut, leg up, back door or jump of the queue. We must ask ourselves is saving a little extra time worth the consequences and sacrifice of character to do it the right way. By skipping steps we are depriving ourselves of the opportunity to see where we need improvement and subsequently grow as people. For a few extra minutes on the sofa we are missing the opportunity to watch the world go by in all its glory. It's pretty obvious that even Lance Armstrong with his perfect sized cycling legs took the necessary steps in his training to succeed and as a result was also able to enjoy the view of the world on the way to the finish line.

Michael J Fox & ALF make a cute couple.

I once got given a frisbee as a birthday present- Awesome! It was orange- More Awesome. It had vents on the side that made it whistle through the air- Totally Awesome! It had a picture of ALF in the middle- Yep, that just happened! The sweet tone of whistley goodness as it glided on the air was like it was ALF's spaceship coming to crash into our house. He'd definitely would have stayed in my room and we would have stayed up cracking jokes even after we'd been warned to go to sleep or no TV for a week. (Whatever, I'd only watch ALF anyway and that show wouldn't even exist because I'd be living it... gees) I could have made a book on tape for him to listen to while I was at school and on his birthday I would have given him a frisbee with a picture of me in the middle wearing a hawaiian shirt.
Early on my birthday a couple of years later a bike appeared from behind the sleet in my eyes- Woah! It had a tough name- 'Rogue'! It had gears- FIVE of them! It had florescent yellow forks- Yep, get outta my face! Rogue and I cruised the streets with the attitude of a soccer mum in an S.U.V and that meant no school teacher was going to tell us where we could and couldn't park. Basketball courts were blank bitumen canvas's awaiting skids from a never ending rear tyre and my thumbs got stronger from all the gear changes. Rogue was tough. Rogue had attitude. Rogue, got super seeded really quickly.
Like everyone, the 'Back to The Future' movie series made me think about things. Serious things. For a young impressionable mind the idea of going back in time was a new exciting thought process that inspired many a day dream and questions of one self. Being a young whipper snapper at the time of the films release it was the first time I started to ask "what would I have done different?" I wanted to be a passenger with Michael J Fox in the Delorian and jump from decade to decade. It encouraged me to find the frisbee underneath my bed and take it back out for a spin. ALF wasn't the same. He lacked the colour of old and we couldn't seem to connect the way we used to. When soaring the whistle was irritating and I couldn't help but keep looking at the time to see when it was going to be a socially acceptable to leave (I had a new fluro green Casio watch). It pained me to think that ALF and I had grown apart and it could be time to move on. I put the frisbee next to the bike underneath the house- where all old toys go to die. Rogue and I just didn't fit anymore, puberty happened and I had physically grown too big for it. Like the movie 'Toy Story' I like to think my childhood toys and day dreams all hang out together and talk trash over a milkshake.
Growing up and growing apart is part of the process to personal growth and revisiting the past is a necessary task to undertake but must be approached with caution. There's a reason Back to the Future only went for 116 minutes. If they had of filmed more period piece footage you would have realised that the 1950's was filled with a large portion of unidentifiable behaviours. No cable. No iPod's. No deep fried Mars bars. It's important to firstly acknowledge and then ask yourself if it is or not a good idea or time to revisit memories. Some things need to remain in the past.
But, if you do get a chance to go back in time remember not to bump into yourself and say g'day to Michael J Fox and ALF, they spend most of their time sipping the same chocolate milkshake through two straws at the dinner.