From the shape of our cells to the swirl of our fingerprints, each human is profoundly, almost incomprehensibly unique. In all the eons of time, amongst trillions of human eggs that have been fertilized and hatched ... there is only one you: microscopically remarkable, positively unrepeatable, original, and...beyond compare.

Role models are useful. They are lighthouses when dream-chasing gets cloudy, they are proof of stamina and magic. But emulation is tricky terrain. I have a friend, an aspiring novelist and brilliant writer in her own right, who said to me once that she wanted to be the "Canadian Anne Lamott,"

I said, "Why don't you just be the global You?"

I’m not much into the practice of gratitude. I don’t keep a gratitude journal as Oprah prescribed all those years ago, nor am currently I participating in that Facebook thinggie where you post something for which you’re grateful each day from now until Thanksgiving. I mean, I think they’re beautiful ideas, as they help to promote a state of thankfulness in more people who may not otherwise see the blessings in their lives. Really, I’m all for such things. I’ve just never felt particularly drawn to do them.