Recently, I had the pleasure of a visit from an old friend from the UK. She brought us Hula Hoops (best chips in the world, ever) and in return we road-tripped her around Otago.
Every hill, every coast view brought a fresh ''Wow'' from her lips. Ours were too busy munching potato rings off our fingertips. And anyway, we're used to that view. Those fields, those snowcaps, those waves. But her constant accolades soon had us thinking, yeah! Yeah! We do live in the greatest country. Ever.
Leaving Dunedin after an exclamation-filled day, one of us chippie-eaters casually mentioned Baldwin St. What is this Baldwin St you speak of? Only the steepest street in the world ever. In Dunedin. Well we've got to see that, it's superlative. Wow, wow, wow!!!Superlative: an adverb showing the pinnacle-ness, the prowess of whatever noun it is attached to. The Guinness Book of Records is stuffed full of them.
Our last summer break was also chocker with superlatives. I blame a song that the kids sang as an end-of-school anthem: ''You can be the greatest, you can be the best, you can be a King Kong banging on your chest ... standing in the hall of fame, and the world's gonna know your name ... you can be a champi-o-on, you can be a champi-o-on'' etc blah repeat to fade while staying indelibly locked in memory.
Catchiness aside, I have a beef with that song that is beefier than most of those lovely thighs I've been watching running around pitches lately. I just don't think this striving for the superlative is very realistic, very peaceful or very kind. Three reasons.
One: There's always going to be something bigger or someone better somewhere or, if not, there will be people engaged in a plot to get biggerer and betterer so they can be superlative over you. This principle applies equally to sports teams, scientific innovations and tall buildings. It might not apply to streets, because the difference between driving up Baldwin St and being on a roller coaster about to tip is ever so slight. And while it is probably one of the most epic-est feats of road engineering ever, it just goes to show that we can't go on getting biggerer and betterer for everer. Something is bound to snap.
Two: All this bettering is exhausting. Hula Hoops used to just be good chippies. Now, for maximum effect, or even just to be noticed, they have to be not just the best chippies, but the best chippies in the world ever, literally, totally, actually. The End.
Three: It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice. I don't see where kindness resides in King Kong banging on his chest. Rampant competition can be a very ugly thing (apart, of course, from when you're those thigh-owners thundering convincingly across the pitch).
And while it's heart-pounding to believe that you live in the Best Country Ever with the best sports teams ever and the cleanest rivers ever and the least corruption ever, one of the things about superlativing in the hall of fame is the chance of a fall from grace. Which is another reason why not to take this survival of the fittest stuff too seriously.
Sitting at the top, the only way is down. Much more peaceful to consider the survival of the fit enough. Being good enough, just good enough, can be seen as a weakling thing in a society obsessed with superlative perfectionism.
But actually, yeah! I don't want to be the champi-o-on or even my most superlative self. Not every day, anyway. Because otherwise I would be the exhausted-est. And probably not the nicest. Definitely not the nicest. And I'm already exhausted-ish from the amount of most epic books ever and most totally unmissable movies in the history of this planet that I'll never have a chance to catch.
And don't get me started on being the best pony club mum ever with the cleanest house and the most thrivingest garden. Please.
C.S. Lewis once wrote: ''Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.''
I'd like to add this: be peaceful being good enough, be grateful for the wows.
