Dear Mr. Morton,
A while back you wrote a reply to a young mother who obviously had low self-esteem. She had siblings who were very successful and felt she couldn’t measure up to them. Could you highlight that inspirational article for those who believe they’re the “black sheep” of the family?
—J.S.
Dear J.S.,
I assured her that the natural order dictated before birth that she wouldn’t be like her brothers or sisters — or like anyone else on earth. How we are created ordains this fact, so we should strive to find, and be, ourselves. We didn’t arrive on planet earth by serendipity means. By metaphysical design, millions of sperm cells — each which would have to be magnified a thousand times for our eyes to behold — struggled to reach an egg that was smaller than the point of a needle. Only one survived, while millions of its challengers perished in the struggle. One grappling sperm cell, out of millions, made each of us! It, miraculously, bonded with an egg containing a tiny nucleus.
I told the young mother that her uniqueness from her siblings was intended by design the moment this microscopic struggle began. This sperm, and its egg, contained 24 chromosomes, each wrapped in Jell-O-like beads strung together. Each bead housed hundreds of genes. This bonding fused her parent’s ancestral past. One healthy and victorious sperm bonded with one expectant egg, both conquerors of millions of years of human kind’s battle for survival. This unbeaten bonding couldn’t possibly have created a “black sheep”.
The natural order dictates that everyone is born to be a unique champion. I suggested she refrained from defining her worth by comparing herself with her siblings and to avoid reading self-help books.
Why? Because for her, they would be like “cook books” or someone else’s notion of what’s good for her.
Instead, I recommended she seek an impartial, professional counselor who could help her unearth her incomparable individuality.
Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S., has retired from his positions of school psychologist and adjunct professor in the School Of Leadership And Policy Studies at Bowling Green State University. Contact him at the Family Journal: www.familyjournal1.blogspot.com
