I'm Somebody!

Yes, I'm somebody. I know it's true because of something I did yesterday. You know how you'll hear people say, "Somebody should fix that." "Somebody should clean that up." "Somebody should make some changes." "Somebody should DO something." Perhaps you've even said or thought it yourself. I know I have.

Well, yesterday I was out bicycling when I came upon a broken branch lying halfway across the road. It wasn't a busy road. Anyone could stop and move it with little worry of getting hit. It wasn't in my way. I could easily avoid it on my bike. I rarely even drive that way. That branch in the road would never affect me at all. I started musing, "Somebody's going to have to move that." And then I stopped. And I moved it.

It was a lot easier for me to step off my bicycle to move that branch than it would have been for someone to stop a car and climb out to do it. There's no way to know what may have happened if I hadn't stopped. Maybe someone would have hit the branch and broken something under their car. Maybe a piece of branch would have flown into the nearby yard and hit a kid upside the head. Maybe nothing would have happened at all.

Someone else would have eventually cleared the road. It wasn't my responsibility. Or was it? In What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Bolles writes:

The Spectacle Which Makes Angels Laugh: So many times you will see people wringing their hands, and saying, "I want to know what my Mission in life is," all the while they are cutting people off on the highway, refusing to give time to people, punishing their mate for having hurt their feelings, and lying about what they did. And it will seem to you that the angels must laugh to see this spectacle. For these people wringing their hands, their Mission was right there, on the freeway, in the interruption, in the hurt, and at the confrontation.

It is our responsibility -- all of us -- to look beyond ourselves and consider the greater good. It is our mission to do whatever we see needs done, whenever we see it. Right away, before we forget and before it's too late. If each of us made the effort to take care of the little things as we go about our daily lives, the whole world would run much smoother.

If you think you just can't spare the few minutes it might take to make something right, never mind. Somebody will do it. But later when you look in the mirror, remember that YOU are somebody. Just like me.