The Quest(ion) of Unique: Part 1

I have long been writing about uniqueness, though perhaps in a rather disjointed, round-about manner. I’ve captured my thoughts in scattered means – like puzzle pieces anticipating the euphoric unity of the finished masterpiece, and set them in a pile. Here, I will strive toward recreating the masterpiece: the peace and wonder of understanding my own thoughts, and perhaps another glimpse into the nature of the human collective.

Any attempt to understand the unknown should start with a base of fact, a foundation on which subsequent analysis and ideas may be mounted – a reference point of sorts. It is thus that I should make to define the act of being unique in order to better reference any future abstracts to a common point, rather than leave them to be compared to any one of countless other ideals and opinions: setting it all up for unfounded scrutinizes.

Again here I delve into unrelated concepts if only momentarily, in order to justify my upcoming statements. To me, a word is a vessel for intent – a way to confine, and thereby express the infinities of thought, mind, emotion, soul, and being. While more concrete words are self explanatory (one would not cause to fret over whether a canine should be in fact labeled as a “goldfish” over a “dog”), those that represent the more abstract ideas often carry many different meanings – those that may differ between individuals. The word “unique” (and all of its conjugations) belong to the latter of the two.

To be “unique”, in my humbled opinion, is to be who and what you are and want to be without the temptations or impressions of outside forces and entities. By this definition, there may very well exist two same unique persons; it is not the act of being distinguishably different from the mass populous that makes a person unique, but the act of invariably being one’s true self.

This opinion as to the definition of uniqueness has come to me only recently. Often my own thoughts and ideals elude me less they be deliberately sought; during my writing periods however, those thoughts and opinions have flowed out in front of me – written surprisingly by my own hand; it is as such that I have rediscovered this truth to my ideals of uniqueness. I am to a degree appalled by the very notion that such and exquisite and simple thought of my own creation could elude my conscious awareness, but I am at the same time intrigued by it: this new, old notion of the being of uniqueness and the act of discovering more to my being.

The last statement lends a certain futility to the notion of striving for this uniqueness: it is a difficult feat to be able to proclaim a sense of uniqueness – a certain state of self being, when in fact the true self remains unknown. The question arises promptly: “how can anyone then lead themselves to accurately believe themselves unique?” In my attempts to answer this to myself, both questioner and questioned, I have come to create a few abstract observations:

Each person embodies the spirit of society: a set of values accepted and deemed appropriate by the masses. These values enact notions of glorious conformity: telling the peoples what to wear to become loved – a primitive desire founded in each of us; what to eat and diet in order to meet the accepted physical shape; what music to listen to; what to say; what to believe; what to do. These values and notions are pressed upon humans from birth, regardless of their fallibility. Humans, having seen only these values as constant, come to accept these values as their own, often neglecting to question where they originated from.

This is not to lose hope and condemn mankind as useless in determining their true identities, nay, I believe that it is within the capabilities of each person to question there moral values and accepted notions and opinions. This act of examining one’s self leads eventually to the act of weeding out the false or imprinted notions: creating a picture of the true identity of an individual. With effort, an individual can distinguish between their self and their socially accepted self; though knowing yourself in entirety is likely not possible in a lifetime, one can gather a sense as to their true being.

Thus reevaluating the previous statements it is found that it is the sense of self-being and the striving to break free of the social impressions and allowing the self-being to embody your person that allows you to be unique. This statement embodies not only the notion of living the true self but the common place notion that uniqueness embodies the act of being different from everyone else, exemplified by the act of breaking free of society.

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