Synchronicity?

17
How to Be Somebody
by Shirley Dever
Whenever something important needs to be done, many of us often have the tendency to let somebody else do it. In this selection, the author tells why it is important for each of us to be that somebody.

Three brothers had a fun evening together. One of them put a couple of pieces of alder on the fire in the wood stove before they went to bed. A couple of hours later, the fire was out of control. In their groggy state the brothers didn't know what to do. One panicked and jumped out a second-story window. Another, with amazing calmness, found his way to a door and got out OK. Later, the firefighters discovered the third boy by a bedroom window. He had died of smoke inhalation.
"Didn't anyone try to get him out?" And the same answer was given, again and again. "We thought somebody else went in to help him!"
An unknown author wrote a clever and brief story about this sort of thinking:
"This is the story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done."
Do you rely upon a mysterious "they" you refer to as Somebody Else? It's amazing how most of us rely on this unidentifiable person on a regular basis. We say, "I'm sorry I left the house open, but I figured Somebody Else would lock up." Nobody else did.
What is at stake is owning up to responsibility. And this simply means the ability to respond. Each of us is responsible for his own actions. We are also responsible for those times we do nothing in the face of needs.
Not to decide is to count on Somebody Else's taking over the responsibility you were to assume. It is to turn your back on the fact that life itself requires daily decisions. Life is a decision-making process. Not to decide is a cop-out.
Young people might he astounded to learn that wars were actually fought, for the most part, by young men still in their teens! Louis XIV of France did not think it surprising to have fourteen-year-old lieutenants in his armies. The oldest soldier in one of his corps was under the age of eighteen. Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, led the French to a momentous victory at Orleans when she was seventeen and became a martyr at age nineteen.
Over and over again young people who refuse to cop out are consumed by purposes bigger than themselves. Then their inner cry becomes, "What can I do?" not, "What will Somebody Else do for me?"
John F. Kennedy made a statement, "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." This is the philosophy that breaks the Somebody Else dependency. Ask, "What can I do for that person who can use my help?"
Once I responded to the plea of a paraplegic girl who had a deep desire to go to Hawaii. When I made sixty phone calls in her behalf, thirty-eight people responded with various amounts of money. Within a week I was staring in amazement at checks totaling one thousand dollars. It was a miracle! What I didn't know at the time I helped this young girl was that she would die one year after her dream trip!
Many Somebody Elses helped me, to be sure. But someone had to make those calls and take care of the details. After that experience, it has been easier to rely on myself rather than those mysterious "theys" who are all around me.
Most of you wish to be in control of your life more than you are. Releasing your dependence on other people is a great way to gain more control and to feel better about yourself.
Instead of saying, "I need Somebody Else to get me started," motivate yourself by saving, "I have a self-starter; I'll use it!" Or rather than saying, "Somebody Else has so much going for him/her," say to yourself, "I have special gifts, too, and I'm going to use them."
You are Somebody. You have certain talents and gifts. You can do certain things that not just Anybody can do. Nobody can put you down or discourage you unless you let him/her. So is Somebody Else really so important after all?