I Care...

No I don't...

The essential opening scene of the animated feature, Antz, starring the voice and personality of Woody Allen, has Woody's ant, Z, on his psychiatrist's couch, doing a wonderful send-up of the basicl neurotic Woody Allen personality. He's kevetching up a storm and final concludes that amongst the millions and millions of workers in the nest, he feels insignificant.

The psychiatrist interrupts to congratulate him on his break-through! Woody does an animated double take... Break-through? he asks.

"Yes," says the psychiatrist, "because you've grasped the essence of your existence, you ARE insignificant!"

Naturally the rest of the very entertaining movie is Woody being significant.

Which all of us think we're doing too, being significant. That's what Popular Culture is all about, making you think you're significant. Get a tattoo, get a piercing, smoke something exotic, drive something that doesn't look like all the other wheeled vehicles on the streets... On and on it goes. Labeled clothes, perfumes, jewelry, hair styles, vocal styles, physical affectations...

But in the end you only really matter to yourself and, if you're lucky, one other person who isn't your mother. And if you do it right, it's enough.