Thoughts by Richard Bleil
Limited Edition always means more valuable. We see it often in vehicles, where a select few vehicles of a manufacturer’s model are designated “limited edition”. These are unique vehicles, different from the others of the same model, making them more valuable.
Have you ever considered that you, too, are limited edition? With a world population of over 7.5 billion today, and a total of more than 105 billion people to have ever lived, you are the only you who has ever, and who will ever, live. That’s a pretty spectacular thing to be able to say.
We have a habit of belittling others, and many of us have been on the receiving end of that form of abuse. I’ve lived my life feeling belittled and unimportant. Maybe that’s why I’m writing this post today. I’ve been discarded and thrown away by so many people and employers in the past, and while the position could be filled, I, myself, can never be replaced. Yes, the women I have dated have discarded me, and I’m certain that they’ve been able to find new boyfriends (or partners), but I wonder how many of them have found a man who writes them love letters by hand as I did? How many found men willing to give full body massages and just let her fall asleep without expectation of reciprocation? How many have found men who are not only willing to pitch in on household chores, but are happy to do it? No doubt there are others who do these things, but how many did them all? And even if they did find a man to do them all, none would do them as I did. I am unique, one in a hundred billion.
What is it, I wonder, that makes you, my dear reader, one in a hundred billion? Where does your panache lie? Is it in your cooking? Your compassion? Your artistic skills? Maybe, just maybe, you’re not certain yourself, but I can guarantee that it’s there. The world is so much better with you in it, and you deserve to be valued as a limited edition because you truly are.
If you don’t believe me, let’s try science. There are over 30 million nucleotides in DNA. Now, we are all human, so we share 99.9% of those codons with all human beings. To me, it’s remarkable that anybody who insults me is also insulting 99.9% of themselves at the same time. That means that there are about three million nucleotides that are unique to you and you alone. On first glance, that may seem as though we are only one in three million, but remember, there are four different types of nucleotides, so these three million nucleotides gives rise to thirty trillion different possible combinations. This is thirty times greater than the total number of people who have ever lived. Even science agrees, you are unique.
Suppose, just suppose, that somebody else does, or did, or will have the exact same DNA as you do. They would look like you, sound like you, but even then, their experiences will be different. Our experiences shape who we are, how we view the world, the way in which we approach problems, those things that we value. Psychiatrists to this day argue the extent to which nature and nurture plays a part in who we are, but one thing they can all agree on is that both are critically important to what has made us who we are. The Hindu faith maintains that reincarnation is how we grow spiritually. While they believe that we either learn from this life (meaning our spirit has grown) and we are born into a higher life form (until we’ve reached Nirvana, their version of heaven, which is the highest form of spirituality) or we have failed to learn and we are born into a lower life form until we again learn our lesson. But even if I were reincarnated with the exact same DNA that I have today, I would still be a different person. Maybe I would be born into money which would make me view the less fortunate differently. If I were raised as privileged, and not feeling as overlooked and discredited as I had been, then I wouldn’t be writing this post today.
In the end, just remember that you are the only you that will ever live. We need you, and your unique perspective and views. We lose far too many people in the holiday seasons, people who have reached the end of their desperate rope and not knowing what else to do simply end it, but when they do, they not only take their lives away from themselves. They also take their essence, their uniqueness, their individuality and their panache from the rest of us.
Bleil's Banter 