Are we more than the sum of our parts?

Posted on | May 23, 2009 | No Comments

Yesterday, Soul Pancake asked readers to list five details about their lives that distinguish them from everyone else. It’s an interesting experiment, to see what people think make them different from someone else. I had a hard time with it. Every time I thought of something, a minute later I’d realize, “oh, well, other people do that too” or “I know someone else who thinks like that.” It became a challenge for me to figure out what exactly made me me.

Then I started to think about all of these things together. Surely, the people who have the same habits as I do don’t also have the same thoughts. And the people who probably think similarly as I do probably don’t act all alike either. Maybe the things we have in common, when added to other characteristics or traits, makes up this unique person we know as ourselves. When it comes to distinguishing ourselves from one another, perhaps it is the sum of our parts that makes us different.

In math, 2+2 will always equal 4, but the genetic math that occurs to create a human is much more subjective. A little brown hair, some blue eyes, an extreme dislike of dentists and a love of reading and writing, with just a dash of perfectionism somehow adds up to one Ordinary Mer (give or take a few extra parts of the equation).

But is that all we are – various bits and pieces that come together to form the whole? Is there something more that makes us us? Surely there must be something more, some essence or soul, at the our very core. The math alone would indicate that there are only a finite number of possibilities when it comes to combinations of character traits.

I don’t know that I’m actually looking for an answer. I think it’s more important just to ask the question. Oh, and the five things I finally decided on?

• I have 4 parents, 5 siblings, about 22 aunts and uncles and somewhere around 30 first cousins.
• I’m the only near-sighted person in my immediate family.
• I have a scar on my leg from an accident when I was six.
• I’m terrified of clowns.
• I’ve played the flute for 15 years.

What do you think distinguishes you from everyone else?

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

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