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If you are unfamiliar with the Sami people, you may remember them from the names Lapp or Laplander (But they prefer Sami, which is their native tongue, and regard the others as insulting.). While they are best known for their skills as reindeer herders, the Sami also engage in fishing, fur trapping and sheep herding, and their population ranges through a number of countries.

Now, I am all for the recognition of ethnic diversity and observing heritages, but discovering that the Sami now have their own holiday brought to the forefront of my mind a potential challenge for whoever decides when the post office and banks will get a day off. Officially, the United States government recognizes 51 categories of ethnic groups (And that does not take into consideration unacknowledged peoples who would like to alter that status.). For example, even though many people observe Cinco de Mayo, it is not authorized, and if it should become formal, it would only pertain to the Mexican Americans, thus omitting other Spanish speaking ethnic groups. And how about smaller cultural, religious or language populations? How about the Gypsies, Australian Aborigines or the Melungeons of the Appalachians? Are they not also deserving of practicing their traditional cultures and the acknowledgment of their contributions to Americana known?

Well, that responsibility has never been placed in my lap (no pun intended), so I have no need to worry about the issue. It does, however, lead me to a much more important observation — everybody needs and deserves to feel special. It may be worded that each person has a need to be loved or that they crave recognition or that they merit status among their peers, but simply put, everyone wants to feel that they are special.

In the formative years of my ministry, I happened to become friends with a seasoned pastor who once told me, “Everybody has a need for at least one friend whose face lights up just for them to walk into the room.� President Jimmy Carter once said of his beloved wife Rosalynn, “As long as she was in this world I knew I had one person who believed in me.� But I think the best worded summary of this observance was voiced by Charlie Day (of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia�): “Everyone knows what it is to be the underdog. Everyone wants to be accepted. Ultimately, at the end of the day, everyone just wants to be loved.�

While the above quotations sufficiently state the situation of our human failure of which we are all guilty in failing to elevate one another’s sense of self-esteem in this world, other wise people have proposed the solution. Albert Einstein expressed it well with, “Weak people get revenge; strong people forgive.�

And I cannot but hear in my own mind the voice of Maya Angelou speak to the solution of the human need to feel that somebody cares: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.�

There is another practical and terribly simplistically phrased approach to the problem of the loneliness of not feeling special, and I believe Jesus and other deep thinking world changers would agree, “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like somebody.�