You Are Special

The word SPECIAL has a “special “ place in everyone’s life. It’s such a beautiful word that we all like to use ever so often to describe an occasion, a person, an event, a menu, a festival, a place and the list goes on and on . However if you ponder over it and give it a careful and a serious thought, the very word has a SPECIAL meaning and a PURPOSE
Let us explore the different connotations and circumstances when we often tend to use the word “SPECIAL.” A wedding for instance is looked upon as a special occasion, a birthday for instance, a newly born baby in the family, a moment of glory in our academics or career, that special someone in our lives, a special dinner menu in a restaurant, a special gift. While the overt objective is to display our feelings, our happiness , doesn’t the word special convey the urge and eagerness to possess something, own something all for and by ourselves?
When a man or a woman tells the other that she or he is special what does that exactly mean? The person expressing such a sentiment wants that person all for himself. So how does it feel to be that special someone? We all would like to be that special someone in another’s life and thought isn’t? It makes us feel good, wanted, cared for, thought about, loved by the person who expresses the word “hey you are very special”. The person saying it wants you and also possess you.
When your employer says that you are special he is expressing the same feeling, that he does not want to lose you, not you as YOU, but what you bring in to the organization, you are just a vehicle through which your employer gains. He will possess you as long as you are useful to him.
Child birth is a special occasion in every family, for it’s a possession, an assertion to the world that you can keep the family tree and genealogy alive. But does that child who has walked into this world feel that he is special? Do we as parents make the child feel that he is special irrespective of how he shapes up in life, the way he wants to be and not the way we want him It seldom happens, because special always means that we want to own it the way we want it rather than the way it is.
Being that as it may, where does this lead us in life as individuals? When we succumb to the fact that we are being looked at as “SPECIAL” we lose our identity, our self worth, our individuality, for we are made to function and perform the way the others want us to . The moment we cease to appeal to the other person’s perceptions about you , we lose the “special” tag. Special is ephemeral, it is now right now, like a special festive menu in a restaurant, gratifying in the here and now. The tag does not really make you special, but only makes you a slave to someone’s fancy.
Are we then saying that the word special has no meaning at all whatsoever? As long as we , as individuals, believe that we are what we are only by our thoughts, actions, deeds, we will make this world a better place.