somebody

mac.mac.dell.mac.fujitsu.mac.no idea.mac.

that's today's laptop lineup, as seen from my view on the first floor of the coffee bar in san francisco. there they all are...perched like birds on a streetlight wire. what are they working on? who's facebook album are they snooping through to avoid doing work? i can't help but wonder. what if each of them had a thought bubble over their heads that reveled what they did for a living. entrepreneur. gossip columnist. blogger who wishes they were getting paid for their writing. alright kids, what'll it be? would you rather walk on water, posses the gift of flight, or be able to see the thought bubbles over anyone's head? i guess your answer depends on a lot of things. like whether or not you genuinely enjoy getting up in the morning to go do whatever it is that you do to pay the rent. or whether or not you have a fear of heights.

"all my life i've wanted to be somebody, but i see now i should've been more specific."

found this quote (circa the famous playwright jane wagner) in the september issue of oprah magazine and it really made me stop and think. i want to be somebody, but the phrase be somebody is actually a very vague concept. that homeless person i saw riding his bike in manhattan beach--wearing the most amazing duct tape and cardboard helmet ever--is somebody. the chick eating her soup directly across from me is somebody. those alcatraz inmates from back in the day who were known worldwide for their vicious crimes were all somebody. so what exactly do we mean when we tell ourselves that we want to be somebody--to make something of ourselves? is the end result fame? fortune? a colony of followers? a house with a yard? a trophy of some sort? a corner office?

maybe our twenty-somethings is a great time to explore the word "somebody" and discover what it means to you--and you and you and you--personally. your idea may be entirely different from mine, thus making the paths we take in life different. i mean, if i imagine the kind of human being i want to be someday, won't that help me to make the right decisions today that lead me down the right path? maybe. after all, it's not a science.

obviously none of us have a crystal ball, but i think--i hope--that each of us has an idea of the kind of person we want to become, regardless of the line of work we end up choosing for ourselves. so before you tell yourself that you want to be somebody someday, figure out what that entails for you. otherwise, i know a great way to save on a bike helmet.