You Are the Special

Sometimes it's really hard for me to believe it's only been a little over two years since I penned the post that changed my life forever because so much of the time, it feels like a lifetime ago. And for as long as those two years sometimes feel to me, I'm certain they feel much, much longer to those of you who made the choice to hang around and travel those years with me. That's a really big deal to me, you know ... those of you who choose to stay ... choose not to leave ... choose to believe in me even when I don't believe in myself ... choose to think I'm worth keeping around. You really will never know ... there really are no words ... you mean so much to me ... I will be forever grateful for you. If I never before understood the deep truth of the words, "You don't know what you have until it's gone," you can bet every penny you have that I sure do understand it now. I had no idea how guilty I was of not appreciating certain people who were an important part of my life until they were gone ... some through death, some through distance, some through decision.

Yesterday afternoon was "family movie night" here in the home of my eldest son and his little family, and in keeping with dear Mattie's restored connection with the Legos from his childhood, we watched ... of course we watched ... The Lego Movie. Matt couldn't believe I hadn't already seen the film, and he was over-the-top excited for me to watch it with him ... uh, I mean watch it with Coraline. As we all settled in on the couches and waited for the movie to start, my mind raced back to all the kid movies I used to see ... all the kid movies I used to take my two favorite movie buddies to see ... the kid movies I used to see before "the post." As the movie began to play on the television, I blinked back tears as I prayed that Coraline and Amelie will always choose to stay ... I blinked back tears and prayed with everything in me that Coraline and Amelie will forever and always only see me as their Ghee who loves them so very, very much.

As was so often true in the kid movies I used to take my young movie buddies to, The Lego Movie contained within it some big life lessons ... yep ... a movie about plastic building bricks has caused me to do some serious thinking about my life. I should know by now that when a scene near the beginning of a movie strikes a deep and resonating chord within me ... I should know by now there's some big, huge, gigantic lesson ahead for me. In The Lego Movie, it's the scene when Bad Cop is interrogating Emmet ... Emmet says, "Look, this is a misunderstanding. I'm just a regular, normal, ordinary guy. And I'm late to meet my best friends in the whole world, and they're probably missing me right now. They're probably out looking around, saying, 'Hey, where's Emmet? Hey, where's my best friend Emmet?' Ask all my friends and they'll tell you." I suppose I should have known what was coming next ... Bad Cop tells Emmet he did ask his friends and got their responses on camera which he proceeds to show to Emmet. Not one of the people Emmet thought were his friends stood up for him ... not one of them had anything positive to say about him ... some of them couldn't even remember who he was. But the comment that got to me the most was from a guy named Randy ... "We all have something that makes us something, and Emmet is ... nothing." And Emmet's reply to Bad Cop after hearing the devastating words from the "friends"? "There you go. I told you I was a nobody." Before you ask ... heck yes, I was teary ... gosh, of course I was teary, are you kidding me?

Though it took him a long time ... well, it took him almost the whole movie anyway ... Emmet finally came to understand he wasn't a nobody after all; in fact, Emmet ended up being the one and only Lego who could save the entire Lego kingdom from certain destruction. Funny how similar to real life that is ... there's always that one person ... that one person in the background ... that one person no one notices ... that one person who somehow finds their way out of the sea of anonymity ... that one person who overcomes seemingly impossible challenges ... that one person who ends up making a difference ... that one person who finally discovers he or she is the Special after all. Talk about a gigantic lesson, friends ... that's an enormously gigantic life lesson if ever there was one for sure. The more I've thought about Emmet's words to Lord Business at the close of the film, the more I've decided they are words every one of us needs to hear ... words we need to say to one another. The more I've thought about Emmet's words, the more I've decided they are words I need to hear ... words I need to remember ... words I need to think about for a long, long, long time ... words I may even need to believe.

"You are capable of amazing things, because you are the Special. And so am I. And so is everyone. The prophecy is made up, but it's also true. It's about all of us. Right now, it's about you. And you can still change everything."