Saturday, January 13, 2018

MORE & Being ‘SPECIAL’



MORE & Being ‘SPECIAL

(you’re) 1 in a million
cliche

One in a million indicates special.
Yet even if true, being 1 in a million of 7 billion people in the world, one is merely 1 out of 7,000!
So much for ‘special.’

One singular sensation
Lyric from Chorus Line’s Singular Sensation

What motivates the pursuit of special (when certificates of participation – make everyone a winner - special)?

Money?
Sex?
Recognition? (which is envied and certainly fades)
Legacy? (really, tell me the name of your great, great, great grandfather).

By implication – even though no snowflake is alike (including the campus crybullies, coddled cupcakes and their pampered unaccountable scholar barrens professors) if one is not special (an American Idol?) – they are losers, worthless.
1 in 7000.

Special doesn’t promote humility – ok maybe false modesty to reinforce one’s ‘specialness.’

If one isn’t special – at best they are ordinary, regular, common, bourgeois and or in the Hillary Clinton dickionary – deplorable. At worse, if not special unique distinctive exceptional, extraordinary, one is worthless – not “one singular sensation
MORE seeks extra©

          The ‘special quest’ (with or without peyote) bolsters and fortifies the pursuit of MORE.
          If one is ‘right,’ one is ‘better.’ And if one is ‘better’ one gets MORE (sex, money, recognition, etc) And if one gets MORE he or she must be ‘worthy’ and ‘good.’
          Thus, A Special MORE-on (Big G stands for goodness – Cheerios™ or Special K from Kelloggs – ‘k- e- double l- o double - gg’ kelloggs’s best to you.)
          1 in 7000

Isn’t that special
Dana Carvey as The Church Lady

Despite a lack of confidence, and as one never accused of humility ('I was wrong once, and even then I was mistaken”), petitioning of Hashem (as a Celestial Major Domo) rather than acknowledging & ascribing to Hashem has been my habit. (That said, my standard poodle of excellence Goodie, ‘her Royal Highness,’ of blessed memory, made a point of taking me down a notch or 20 while my Moses, my standard poodle friend of the soul, had my clay feet on a pedestal – and yet reminded me daily Torah study time.)

It is said that Moses was the most humblest of men. Moses was chosen by Hashem to lead the Israelites out of Egypt (Egypt- mitzrareim – meaning narrow places, restrictions) per the following story:

 It seems a lamb wondered from the flock. Moses found the lamb drinking near water and carried the lamb back to the herd. Thus, if Moses could treat this lamb in this manner – with this humility – he could lead the Israelites out of Egypt (and endure the constant baa baa baa-ing, complaining and kvetching per The Book of Numbers/Kvetchings of our ancestral Hebrews!)

And yet, Moses (the most humblest of men) and his brother Aaron were denied entrance to the promise land for ascribing to themselves – being special (worse divine) – in bringing water out of the rock.

You didn’t build it (implying we – the government did)
Fairoah Obama & Poca-haunt-us

          No, Elizabeth & Balaam Barack, all is derivative (fabricated) originally from Hashem and fabricated from there. (From no-thing – something – then something from something).  And, though admittedly guilty I as well, we so called self made men (“persons” in PC) are those who worship their creator – are but the singer not the song writer, the fabricator even innovative but not the  inventor. All is derivative from Hashem. If that recognition was internalized,  there would be greater humility and less pursuit of being e-specially special realizing and remembering but 1 in 7000.

The journey isn’t conquering new lands but seeing with new eyes
Proust

Humility, acknowledgment – gratitude may lead to a modicum of joy (simcha) but being special (being well known for being well known) or e-specially worse - being special via stolen valor – is never ‘enough.’  Acknowledgment, gratitude & humility (not this writer’s forte) isn’t dependency, isn’t acceding to predetermination/preordination (at the expense of free will and self determination within limitations(1). The recognition of acknowledgment actually may yield a certain simcha (joy)(2) in contrast to the externally derived so called happiness.
Walking with God (and his emissary dog(s) if lucky) continuing to complete one’s incompletions & one’s assignment INside out in humility, gratitude and acknowledgment – that makes the extraordinary out of the ordinary and being ‘special’ - 1 of 7000 or 1 in a million doesn’t matter.


(1)    At 5’5 ½” (on a good morning) it is predetermined this writer would never plan center for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets (not even the Philadelphia 76ers when they went 12 and 70. So free will is limited. Furthermore, there is the limitation by Lamentations – all is preordained but you have free choice – another Jewish Koan (actually Cohen)
(2)    Simcha (joy) is INside out not ‘as’ dependent on OUTside as the illusion of happiness is. Happiness is a sensation – requiring higher and higher dosages to palliate – for happiness’ altered stae whereas Simcha is, at best, an ‘altar’ed state.