those of us who attended public schools, and maybe private and parochial schools have been taught competition is a good thing. football under the lights on Friday nights has become almost a religion. and rightly so.

but, to dig deeper, just how does the benefits of competition, and the benefits of cooperation co-exist on the same playing field. is the playing field unbalanced?

if the Indians didn't help the Puritans, would the Puritans starved? if Sitting Bull ha cooperated with Gen. George Custer at the Little BigHorn, would the results ended differently?

so, cooperative solutions, versus competitive solutions...what does the dividing line look like?

were humans placed here to compete, so that only the strongest survive?

does competition imply the war of the jungle? "law of the jungle, ok?"

just how do we rationalize the competition and cooperativeness of the human condition?

families, neighborhoods, communities, clans cooperate.

sometimes competition raises it's dirty head, no?

Who says only competitive people don't cooperate?

i've just always been intrigued by competition and cooperation.

i have don't have the answer, worse yet, i don't really have a clue.

i know that friday night football is an important ritual in many parts of the country.

on the other hand, cooperating to raise funds to combat cancer is yet another worthy effort.

so, just how does cooperation, and competitiveness intertwine, exactly?