Last semester in my Psychology class, we learned about something called the "False Uniqueness Bias", otherwise known as the "I am special effect". It's the human tendency to underestimate our own commonality in our abilities, desirability or behavior. I suppose this is somewhat true, but it's also terribly depressing.
Maybe it's just me, but I think we all have this innate desire to be extraordinary, to do something special that no one else can do. We want to matter. But my psychology class, and most everyone else, would have us believe that any "unique talents" or "uncommon dreams" we may have are actually just a result of this bias and we are, in fact, nothing special at all. Just like everybody else, we are a result of our culture's psychological influence and nothing more.
But I don't buy it.
Generally I'm not one to jump mindlessly on the popular-culture band wagon, especially when it comes to books (I'm especially skeptical of any "new" romance/comedy/action novel people throw my way...I think I have a "classical literature bias"). Usually the story has been told a thousand times, in the same ways and the old version is a million times better.
But then I read the Hunger Games. (I'm sure a lot of you are sick of the hype about these books. Well, I was too, until I read them. And now I can say unashamedly, I'm "one of those" fans.) Something about these books resonated with me as they obviously did for the majority of the world's population right now. But why? What about these books gets our blood pumping and stirs something deep within us?
Katniss Everdeen is "normal"- she comes from a small district, has the occasional fight with her mother, has unruly hair, likes to be alone, is stuck in an awkward "love-triangle" with two (pretty ideal, I must add) young men. She doesn't see anything special about herself. But everyone else can see that she is indeed "uncommon". She is incredibly brave, taking the place of her sister in the Hunger Games and thereby embracing her almost certain death. She sees the bigger picture, isn't fooled by appearances and ultimately becomes the symbol of a rebellion against an overbearing government.
So why does Katniss stand out to us? Why can we all relate with her in some way that we just can't quite nail down?
It's because she matters. She found something (or in her case, someone) she was willing to die for and didn't hold back anything. She sacrificed herself for a cause greater than herself.
Though the example of the Hunger Games is a bit extreme (we aren't living in a dystopian society where our children have to fight to the death in order for us to eat) the exaggerated story-line leaves us with an undeniable feeling. We want to fight along side Katniss. We want to matter.
While most try and boil our behavior and desires down to a science, I believe we are much more complex than that. I finished the second book last night and woke up this morning with the irrepressible feeling that my life matters and and that I'm not doing anything to live up to it. It's a feeling that makes my heart race and sink every time I think about it:
my life matters. I'm getting far too comfortable with being comfortable though. The place our lives matter the most is when we are doing something that scares us. Something that makes us uncomfortable, but something that makes us feel alive. The continual question I keep asking and won't be content until I find an answer to is "how". How is my life supposed to matter and what steps can I take now? I think it is a question we all should be asking.
