I am mostly unimportant, but I'm just fine with that

There are undoubtedly important people in this world. Not just important to friends and family, but to society in general. People who's decisions or contributions have the ability to alter the lives of hundreds or even millions of people. That description in no way fits me. I have a job, like lots of us do. It stresses me out, like many jobs do. I pay bills, try to give my family the best I can. Like most everyone else.
But I won't be noted in any history books or legends. Nor will I ever receive the keys to the city or be invited to cut the ribbon anywhere. I'll probably never even be recognized for outstanding performance within my company. Not that I don't do my job well. Better than most in my department, actually. But my position is usually overlooked. And I am absolutely fine with all of this. I don't need recognition or fame or public attention. For all its ups and downs, my life is wonderful. I don't want to be important. I don't want to be turned to for my leadership in times of crisis. I don't want to be looked up to and admired by some stranger's kids.
I did want these things when I was younger. But then I learned to truly understand what I have. And that taught me to appreciate it.
Is it in your nature to be happy in your own skin, or do you want to be more than you currently are?

I could give a flying crap what people think of me. The only thing I want my kids to say when I die is, "I never felt unloved by my dad and he always tried his best.".

They are my world and I couldn't be happier than just being around them.

a reply to: pfishy

I am happy with who and what I am. Working with great people is a way to understand yourself better. Seeing the world full of people who can't stand on their feet makes me sad. I enjoy helping people and watching a smile pop out.

a reply to: superman2012

I've never been too concerned with the opinions of others, either

a reply to: pfishy

Every single one of us breathing today are all equally intregal to the aggregate purpose of the collective we exist in. You have no idea how many lives you have and will have touched in a way that was the precise trigger for the launch or fufillment of their individual purpose. Your purpose is just being the true you, and that, my friend, is very difficult for many people to which we share this real estate in space.

You are created from love, give love, and receive love.

It just doesn't get much better than that.

a reply to: NewzNose

But in all the greatness of purpose you describe comes a comfortable smallness.

a reply to: pfishy

I'm only important to my wife and children.

Don't need to be anymore than that.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Precisely

a reply to: pfishy

Your smallness, my smallness, multiplied by 99% of the Earth's human population ARE the collective greatness.

I think its supposed to be that way.

a reply to: pfishy

I'm more concerned with you, and want to talk about that. What makes you feel that you are unimportant? Do you not positively affect other people's lives? Do you not help folk who need it? Listen. ... REAL change happens on your and my level. It doesn't make the news. There is no internet meme that lauds it.

Real change happens at the interpersonal level, and that's where things matter. You make somebody's life better, it truly matters. Maybe you only make somebody laugh that was in a position of serving the public and wore a frown with lines between their brows prior to coming in contact with you. That's the real stuff. It won't be written up in history books, but that's the stuff that shapes the perceptions of people.

Nobody cares what I think. Nobody [may] care what you think. That's freedom. You are free to make a difference, one encounter at a time. It is liberating.

a reply to: argentus

one encounter at a time

Yes. Some people are able to effect huge sweeping changes. Most of us are not. But these "one encounter at a time" interventions, or "assists" are not to be discounted or minimized in the least. If you manage to accumulate a lifetime of 'one encounter at a time" then you've done something important.

a reply to: argentus

We'll, 'mostly' unimportant is what I said. And I'm in no way denying the importance or potential of interpersonal connections, however brief they may be. I am also not denying my potential to influence the lives of others for the better, in small.or large ways.
I think you may have misunderstood the point I am trying to make with this conversation. And I may well be at fault for that for not clearly articulating it. What I am expressing is my satisfaction with an 'average' existence, and not disappointment in myself. I've no need for constant attention, or adoration, or external validation to feel complete and happy as an individual.

a reply to: pfishy

I agree with your perspective and have another way of looking at it too.

Someone invented the printing press and someone invented the internet. Someone else scored the winning goal that won the trophy that made millions cheer. Someone invented a vaccine and someone writes the music that makes the world sing.

Even if our own lives are pretty average, it doesn't mean we can't have descendants who change the world. You can be the trigger for an idea that redirects society.

That makes you very special in terms of potentiality.

a reply to: Kandinsky

But until that goal is achieved by the person I influenced, I remain mostly unimportant. I don't believe in destiny. So, although I may have help instill in them the potential for that particular greatness, it isn't anything but potential until it is accomplished. Just because one has the potential for some strain of greatness doesn't mean it necessarily goes unwasted.

a reply to: pfishy

Is it in your nature to be happy in your own skin, or do you want to be more than you currently are?

I'll share my 'far out' perspective, pfishy, and with a little luck it may make sense.
Doubtful though!

I was adopted. I felt like an outsider most days and struggled in my relationship with my parents. Still confused by most of it.
Anyway, I began a wild ride of a life very early on. It wasn't until I had my first daughter that I felt a sense of purpose. I felt needed and it felt good. To be truly wanted in someone's life. That amazing feeling in my soul only increased after the birth of my second.

Later, when Mom got sicker and had to come live with me full time I realized that (IMO) was the reason I had been adopted. The real reason that my birth mother didn't want to deal with me (she said that to me and it was honest).
I HAD to be there later for my Mom. To take care of her until the end. There really was no one else.

So, the way I look at it is the beginning to the end was/is predetermined. My wild and crazy ride has given me the wisdom to lead (hopefully) my daughters down a better path than I took and still be empathetic to their young/wild/crazy notions and ideas and feelings.

My feeling is that my 'importance' (existence) was/is for those three women.
The entire reason that I was born. The only reason that I exist.
Nothing more, nothing less.

The rest of the world? I, like you, have no importance.

I guess I am okay with that just like you!

Have a great day pfishy! The sun is shining gloriously here! Birds chirping away!

a reply to: TNMockingbird

I, like you, had a fairly wild youth. I wasn't adopted, but wasn't raised by my mother. And I do believe this allows me to empathize better with my own children and try to guide them away from making some of the poorer choices I made. And in that, yes, I do feel important in helping to shape their lives. But as for the rest of the world, time will tell. But I never will.