Is Nothing Really Something?

In a recent article I read the question popped into my head is nothing really something?  Is nothing really someone else's something?  Before I continue with my thoughts here is the article.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/03/12/148456099/two-ways-to-think-about-nothing



This article addresses two types of nothing: one that we see as nothing because it doesn't appear to be like other things around it and two something that was, but then gets taken away.  Here are my thoughts on these two nothings.

See nothing because it doesn't appear to be like other things:  How many times in our lives have we felt like we are nothing in comparison to those around us.  I know for me I believed this for the majority of my life.  I was never as skinny, as pretty, as popular, as gentle, etc.  Truth is just because I wasn't like everyone around me did not make me a nothing.  There is so much that makes me something.  My whit, my attitude, my love, my passion, my compassion, really everything about me makes me something even if I don't look the same as the worldly something!

Something that was, but that gets taken away: In our lives there is always something that we cherish and loose.  Sometimes we have pictures or something to remind us, but if all we have is a memory without a physical thing does that make it nothing?  They happened so they're something whether there is proof or not they occurred. 

This also has me thinking about my choice of career.  I will be working with children who have encountered abuse.  It is possible that all signs of the abuse to the worldly view is gone, but the child knows what they experienced.  To the average person there seems to be nothing there, but to those who know what occurred know can see what is missing.  However, now my question becomes can you truly erase something so it becomes nothing?  What adds value to something? Who determines this value?

My response and thought is this: nothing is something we cannot add or subtract value from.  It is something to someone so we cannot dictate a value.  There is more to nothing than just nothing.  Think when a woman is upset she says its nothing, but really it's something.  We value something as nothing to us, but it is something to someone else.  I know this may be confusing, but for me it changed my perspective on nothingness.