Recently one of the special people here had this to say about one of my articles: "...that was really special."
That made me laugh, which was probably not the effect the writer was going for, but it's a good one nonetheless.
You see, the word "special" has a... well, special meaning to my family, particularly to one of my brothers and me.
When I was a child my mother would offer many words of encouragement. Such things as, “You can become anything that you want,” and “You’re such a good little boy.” You know, the typical things a caring mother tells her children. One thing she would often tell me was that I was a “special person.”
Whenever my older brother was around, he would amend the words, “Yea, like the Special Olympics.”
So calling each other “special” became something of a game to us. We would always try to find cards for birthdays, Christmas, etc. that said something along the lines of “To a Special Brother.” The rest of the family seemed to get amusement out of this as well.
I remember the mirth my brother experienced when I told him that one of my students had given me a refrigerator magnet in the form of an apple with the words “To a very special teacher” on it. I got quite a chuckle over him being named “Special Arbitrator” for some case between two large companies.
This has been going on for close to thirty years, and it still amuses me to no end. It’s just that special.