When man was a boy he drew in the sand, in the grass, on the rock and on paper. No matter where in the world he was, he would draw. Then he would look at his neighbours and say, "I am special because I am different from you. If I am special, then that means you must be less special. However, to remain special I must keep proving that you are less special than me."
Year after year, as he grew, he would write on the sand, on the grass on the rock and on paper all the things that he had done which were better than others. He had more clothes, more cars, more food and most of all, more impact on the world. The larger his carbon footprint, the more he had contributed to the growth of industry so he continued driving his fuel guzzling vehicles and drinking from countless PET bottles.
One day things began to change. People with the least carbon footprint became special. The man changed his car, his clothes and his home. All that time he would note what he did on the sand, on the grass, on the rock and on paper. His clean car had to be bigger, his biodegradable clothes had to be more expensive and his environmentally friendly home had to blend into the landscape better than his neigbours'.
One evening he sat on his bed watching a flat screen TV which showed men, women, children and babies huddling under the nipah shade of a dilapidated hut away from a torrential rain that streamed between their toes and feet. He changed the channel with a black remote control and gazed upon red apes sheltering under the leaves of palm. As he shut his eyes to sleep that night he felt pleased to have learned so much about monsoon weathers and he congratulated himself for having increased his value as a human being.
In the middle of the night, an angel visited and asked him to show a record of his life. The man pointed to the sand, the grass, the rock and the paper yet each time the angel only shook her head. Finally she asked him to count how many people he loved and had helped, as well as to count how many people he hated.
She subtracted the number of people he hated from the number of people he loved, then she divided the product with the number of every single living human being in the world. The whole time she nodded her head seriously. Before disappearing into the night, she said, "You are average."
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