On Life 192 – You Aren’t – October 14, 2017

   It is said, “Befriend yourself, and be honest to it.” Some people lose their true selves. In effect, they tread unsuitable paths, and think they have failed. Yet, verily, they do not know themselves in a way that supports happiness and success. They believe they have what others do not and, thus, they are the best. They might as well think all humans are alike, not realizing that the uniqueness that makes people distinct and complement one another in creativity, which gives meaning to life. They might also fail to realize their potential and, hence, feel they are inferiors.

   In the three cases, they have faulty motives. Therefore, they will not achieve any success. Thus, it was said, “The best definition of oneself: You aren’t better than anybody. Nor are you like anybody or less than anybody.”

You Aren’t the Best

   We need to realize that each person is unique in his strengths which support him, as well as his weaknesses that he needs to overcome. Likewise, each person has his own inventions that differs from others’.

   There’s no such a thing as a man who can understand everything and deal with all matters efficiently. Thus, nobody is better than the others, but is unique in a certain respect.

You Aren’t Like Anybody

   Out of God’s graces is that He did not create us identical. Rather, He distinguished every person by unique talents. Indeed, you can’t find two identical persons in one field. For instance, in literature, each writer has a thought, style, vision, and way of delineating topics that differ from the rest. In painting, each picture bears the vision, feelings, and ideas of its creator.

   Thus, in life, each person has his unique traits which he has to realize and effect in all deeds for the good of humanity. Likewise, we have to understand uniqueness makes humans complement one another that life might become a beautiful icon to which everybody contributes.

   This icon reminds me of a poem written by four great men, namely, Mikha’il Na’ima, Gibran Khalil Gibran, Nasib Arida, and Abdul Messih Haddad as they were traveling together. A stanza popped into Na’ima’s mind. So, he recited it to the rest. So, another recited a stanza with the same rhyme and meter, a third added another, and a fourth did the same until they composed a thirteen-stanza poem which starts as follows:

O silence of the night, sing me a song

Which to the eternal silence does belong

General Bishop

Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center