How do we stack up?

How we stack up (against others) in society - does, in many ways, determine how we feel about ourselves. This is both a truth - and at the same time, a tragedy.

For billions of years, countless groups of animals have lived in tribal hierarchies; including humans …. and all are hardwired to do their best to ‘rise’ within the boundaries of their respective environments. 

Humans though, are unique in the animal kingdom, in that we have the ability to transcend our ‘instincts’; to transcend our suffering; to conceptualise the abstract; to express complex things in simple ways - so surely, surely, we can understand this - we each have the capacity to feel great about ourselves, without comparing ourselves to others.