TWP - 01/31/05 - FIRST

Oh my... Nobody has posted anything to this week's Creative Theme, so I guess I'm FIRST!

When we think of the concept of being FIRST, it usually connotes a good thing. There is honor in the term. FIRST Place, FIRST Prize, FIRST Lady, FIRST Violin in the orchestra. Being "Number One". Nobody really wants to be last (unless it's like, "Last Man Standing" which usually translates into being first place in a contest). Nobody cares about who came in second (even if they missed being first by a nanosecond or microscopic margin of measurement). Being first also implies some sort of courageous or adventurous spirit. First to scale a mountain, first swim the English Channel... I don't know if I'd ever have the gumption to be first at anything noteworthy. There are different philosophies to going or not going first. I think I'd go first to get it over with. I might go first if I knew the outcome would be generally pleasurable: first into the carton of Haagen Daz or Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Of course, that Biblical dictum "...first shall be last and last shall be first" really throws me for a loop.