When I arrived at my usual cafe this morning, there's no newspaper available; all were taken by other customers. So
I had the chance to look around while sipping my coffee, instead of
having my head buried deep in the paper. A casual lady acquaintance was
at a table right across mine, also alone. We never share a table but
we have sort of brief chats occasionally at a distance, close enough to
exchange a few words, the kind of conversation that whether you really
hear each other or not doesn't matter in the least.
Then a young man, total stranger to me, walked from his table way down the back heading for the door. On
passing my table, I don't know for what reason, he smiled and said
good morning to me, also nodded to my acquaintance before he left the
cafe. I noticed that my lady neighbour was looking at me, so I shrugged
my shoulder, made a face, indicating I was puzzled why the man I didn't
know at all greeted me.
That was enough invitation for the lady to say to me, that she worked with him in the same office, that
he was a very good man, intelligent, trustworthy, hard working, always
helpful to others, and everybody loved him, concluding that ' He could
have been 'Somebody' if only he had some ambition'. All that expressed
in the tone of a disappointed mother. A resigned maternal reproach.
I replied, that she herself had indeed just defined the young man as 'Somebody', trustworthy,
useful, helpful and appreciated by all. Isn't that the best anybody
could aim for in life, to do a honest day of work, to be loved by one's
family, friends and coworkers? What better accolade can a person expect? That stranger is already Somebody in my book.
Children are always told by parents and teachers to study and work hard, so that one day they can become Somebody. Instead
of Nobody. This is a very ambiguous term or expression, depending on
each individual's own interpretation or definition who this Somebody
is. Each era has it's heroes. Al Capone was somebody is his day, so was
Hitler, or Bin Laden in his day by millions of his followers. Or even
Superman or Harry Potter. I guess most would take it as to mean somebody
rich, famous, successful in the material and commercial sense;
celebrities that constantly appear in television and prints.
A society functions well or not depends on lots of Nobodys, honest
and capable ones, who are willing to do their best in however humble
or menial jobs, to yield the maximum results through their hard work.
Their names never appear anywhere, you never give them a thought. Their
absence you only notice when everyday things go wrong. But each one of
these Nobodys is Somebody the country can't function and go forward
without.
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