Special

 

What makes something special?

 

Is it uniqueness?

 

Is it something that is exceptionally good?

 

Is it something that is just better?

 

Or is it something far simpler than that?  

 

I just got done watching an older movie that I’ve not seen in many years. Some if not most of you have heard of, Edward Scissorshands. The movie for those of you who have not seen it, need to see it in order to really understand why I am asking these questions.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that Edward is special, but I am curious what makes him so special. What makes anything special? Can special be both a positive and negative thing?

 

What if… what if it is simply that everything is special because it exists. Special... what does that mean? In my experience I can think of very few things that are not special in some way.  For starters lets list off a few things that are commonly thought of as special.

Celebrities

The Olympics and the athletes that compete in them

Religious leaders

Our pets

Our friends.

 

How many of us would say a tree though? A forest? An ant? As I said before I have a hard time thinking that things are not special in some way.  The reason I say/think this is two fold. First, I think that sometimes we have to believe ourselves to be special so that we may truly become it in our minds and actions. Secondly quantum mechanics tends to think so as do several other scientific theories. These theories and facts state that we are special events in space and time never to be repeated.  We are constantly changing. We are specific to a particular moment in time and space.  That makes us unique, never to be repeated.  That is true of all creation according to quantum mechanics, chaos theory and other theories.  Our very existence makes all individuals in every place and time special.

 

So take for example the line stated in the Disney movie The Incredibles. If we say everyone is special, isn’t that the same as saying no one is special? It is a bit of a humdrum.  If everyone and everything is special then the only way we can really call something special is if we are talking about uniqueness. Which brings me to another question… what do we call those things that seem to be “more unique/special” than others and how did they become so? Perhaps that is something for another blog entry.

 

How do you all think we should define what is special and what is not?