One
Whatever you are, be a good one. —William Makepeace Thackeray
Above: A number, a feeling, and a mood all in one.
One is a fascinating, tricky quantity.
Though often deemed the loneliest number, there is a quiet dignity in its solitude.
It is both singular and complete, holistic and limited, a world unto itself.
Once you start to look for one, you find it everywhere.
It nestles into both word and phrase snugly and surreptitiously. It hides in honest words and slips into onerous tasks. (Read that last sentence one more time).
Because we're all looking out for number one, in a way the world is no more than a series of ones all the way down. It's found deeply embedded in our wants and hopes and dreams and loves.
To wit, some wordplay on one's quality and quantity.
This one life on this one Earth is what one makes of it.
No one wants to be a no one.
Everyone wants to be a someone.
In fact, anyone can be a someone.
And yet, every once in a while, we confuse being a someone with becoming the one we’re meant to be.
The hard part is discovering which one that is.
One-offs lie in wait, ready to sidetrack us from our sole vocation.
After all, like a snowflake or a fingerprint, everyone is one of one.
Each and every one has singular value.
Despite this, all too often we feel like zeroes.
Sometimes it takes another one to lift us up and remind us of our unique nature.
Standing alone can onerous, and lonely is the one that has no one.
We are all one of a kind, but we're not meant to be alone.
More important than being someone is finding someone.
The being is just one thing; the real trick lies in the finding the one for you.
Everyone wants to be someone's someone.
One by one, we all pursue the one for us.
But it can be terribly hard to tell a one from the one.
It can feel like one thing after another; a tedious numbers game made up of a long litany of one-to-ones.
And yet, when you find your one and only, your one wild and precious life truly begins.
One thing leads to another and wonder enters the equation.
One step, one day, one moment at a time,
These ones together make their way.
And at the end of this one beautiful life,
What matters most is not oneself,
But the one we've loved, once and for all,
That turned one into two.
Be the first to hear new White Noise. Subscribe to my free, weekly newsletter below!
