I’ve always wanted to be special. Haven’t you?
I was 5 years old when I became aware of this, but I was too emotionally immature to understand what I was feeling. I was outside the front of our house in Atlanta when a sudden thought struck me.
“I’m 5 years old and there are five of us in the family,” I said to myself in wonder. “That must mean I’m special.”
To an adult mind, that thought is nonsense. The coincidence was meaningless. But to a 5 year old who’s unconsciously struggling to feel special, it was something to hold onto. For that moment, it meant everything to me.
When we first reach self-awareness as tiny toddlers, the world revolves around us. All we experience are our needs and we know that the demands of our needs are met by other people. We don’t consciously understand that, but something in us gets it. We are special. We are the king or queen of the world for the moment.
You don’t remember it, but you felt that way. So did I. And we have spent our entire lives unconsciously trying to recover that wonderful moment when the world revolved around us — when we were special.
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
‘This path leads to somewhere I think I can finally say, I’m home’
When love finally dies, it’s like a fever breaks and the pain is gone
I’m trying to silence inner critic who says I ought to be perfect
No matter how admired you are, your work won’t make you special
Apologize while you still can, because you’ll live with regret
Economic Man needs no heart, because love and God are dead
Without peaceful breakup plan, U.S. faces violent, angry collapse