Your Unique Talent?

According to the holiday calendar, today is "Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day." Harrumph. I started immediately to work up my "Bah, Humbug" response. As I began considering the philosophy behind celebrating such a day, it initially seemed to me that no one on the face of the earth has a unique talent.

But then I considered it further, and Anne Geddes came to mind. She does indeed have a unique talent for imagining babies and children in unique settings, with concepts and colors that delight the eye and the mind. There are plenty of copycats now, but Geddes has always remained the best, the brightest, the signature creative expert at the concept that she developed. Like the art of Van Gogh or Rembrandt, you can spot her work at fifty paces.

A few creative geniuses out there through the centuries have displayed unique talent. We know that. Isn't it a bit of hubris to name a day, though, devoted to celebrating each person's unique talent? While I believe that every person in the world is unique, I don't believe that every person in the world has a unique talent. I play the piano and organ (and a couple other instruments), but so do many others. I have a talent for leadership, but so do many others. I have done a lot of writing, talented or otherwise, and so have many other who aspire to write deeply and well. Let's face it: I do not possess a unique talent. That is not a negative thing to admit. I'm being realistic. No one else that I know personally in the world has a unique talent, either.

What I find myself being thankful for is that I have talents, period. I believe that each person in this world has at least one talent, unique or otherwise. And a talent brings joy. It is not the number of talents that is important; it's the fact that we use them and grow them to bless others. And that, my valued readers, is what I intend to celebrate and be grateful for today.

So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’  His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ ~Matthew 25:20-21 (NKJV)