Everybody, Somebody, Nobody.

When Prince Harry went on his knee to propose to Meghan Markle with a yellow gold ring just after a roast chicken dinner at Kensington Palace, she did not wait for her Prince to finish the sentence before she said yes to him. 

She thought the occasion to be "so sweet and natural and very romantic." 

On the ring, she said: "he designed it, it's incredible. Yeah, make sure it stays on that finger."

What was the Prince's response? 

He said he was "over the moon, jumping up and down."

But I am not so much writing about that this morning, or how they met, or what is their favourite colour. I am going off tangent here to write about the views of the world, or more appropriately, the world's judgment. 

You see, not everyone is celebrating though. One part of the world is not. Here is why. 

Meghan is born in LA, not home ground U.K. She is older than him; that breaks the tradition. What's worse is that she's biracial. FYI, Meghan has an African-American mother and a white father. That's unprecedented?

And the one that takes the cake is that Meghan is a divorcee. 

Now putting Prince Charles' dalliance with Camilla aside, the world is not happy that she is not only not pure breed, pure pedigree, and pure blood, but she was once betrothed to another man. 

That I guess permanently marred the image of a fairy-tale princess for the world. 

Then, here's another news. 

Oxford, the English city once home to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has removed her Freedom of the City Award for her "inaction" in the face of oppression of the Rohingya. 

This is what the city council said in a statement:-

"When Aung San Suu Kyi was given the Freedom of the City in 1997, it was because she reflected Oxford's values of tolerance and internationalism. Today, we have taken the unprecedented step of stripping her of the city's highest honour because of her inaction in the face of the oppression of the minority Rohingya population."

It should be noted that Oxford also removed portraits of Suu Kyi from its wall in September. 

FYI, her husband, Michael Aris, was a lecturer in Oxford and the couple lived and raised their two sons in the city.

Lesson? Just one.

There is a certain cold resoluteness in the way the world judges you. If you are a nobody, nobody cares. And because you are a nobody, you are a nobody to them. 

Everybody is looking for somebody and obviously, nobody is just not somebody.

Curiously, everybody adores a somebody because somehow a somebody makes everybody somebody. It's called living your life vicariously through that somebody. 

There is another truth here about nobody, everybody and somebody.

At the risk of sounding trite, everybody exists in the majority. They are the faceless crowd, the hidden stats, the background protest, the masses clamouring for blood, and the ringside spectators expecting a good show for their money's worth. 

They will not settle for less. 

In other words, everybody expects somebody to make everybody feel that they are somebody deep inside. 

There is of course a positive side to that. We all draw our inspiration from our personal heroes or role models. It is our springboard to achieve greater things for ourselves and possibly becoming an inspiration to others. 

But there is also an insidious dark side. It is also a very volatile side. 

Unfortunately, this volatile dark side also explains why somebody has to fit the expectations of everybody for it is trite to say that somebody is somebody because he or she meets the high standards set by everybody. 

So this brings me to Prince Harry who is clearly a somebody in the eyes of everybody. And this also brings me to Meghan, who is, well, a nobody by the standards of everybody. 

What's worse is that this nobody is going to marry the somebody and she doesn't even fit the basic expectation of everybody. 

She is of a different country, different pedigree, different status and different class. Mind you, she is...the "D" word. 

Here you can forget about what MLK once said about judging people not by their colour or creed, but the content of their character. 

And this also brings me to Suu Kyi, the once freedom fighter for everybody. She has been denounced by everybody because of her "inaction". 

Before, she was handsdown somebody. But now, she is a handsoff nobody. Because she has fallen short of the standards set by everybody, she is no longer everybody's somebody. 

(I caveat that this post is not to dissect what Suu Kyi did or didn't do. She has her own demons to fight with, just as everyone has their own. It is nevertheless about the volatility, or even futility, of being in everybody's good books).

So, there you have it, my lesson for the day. 

It's about everybody wanting to be somebody because nobody is just not that somebody everybody wants to be. 

But here's the last truth about nobody, everybody and somebody as I end. 

The reality of it all is that everybody is just not somebody however much everybody wishes they are. 

You see, they can wish that they are somebody but it will not happen as long as they remain as everybody. 

As everybody, they will never understand the struggles, the pain, the loneliness, the regrets, the fallibility, the mistakes, the shame, the determination, and the undying hope of somebody. 

As everybody, they will never understand the sacrifices somebody makes, the blood, toil and sweat they expend to get to where they are, and the disappointment in somebody's life. 

And as everybody, they will never understand the truth that it was not the choice of somebody to become somebody. They just do what they love with passion and perseverance, and they are not looking for fame, fortune or recognition in their struggles to be what everybody wants them to be, that is, somebody. 

If given a choice, I sincerely believe that that somebody rather remain as nobody because they know deep inside that they can never meet up to the standards of everybody, and they never desired to in the first place. 

As a nobody's somebody, somebody enjoys full rest, assurance, peace, mutual understanding, and the joy of just being yourself. 

For somebody also know that they are only human, and they are bound to make mistakes. What distinguishes them however is that they never give up. 

However, as everybody's somebody, somebody will seldom find rest, approval and understanding for they will be judged endlessly by everybody for everything they do and say.

Now, the scary thing here is that in the end, what everybody so desperately wants to be, that is, somebody, is in fact no more than everybody trying desperately to deny what they truly are inside, that is, a nobody. 

So, the sad reality is that everybody is made up of countless nobodies who don't have the courage to step out of being everybody, but instead take cowardice comfort in numbers so that they can avoid the struggles and sacrifices that a nobody takes to become somebody in his or her own rights. Cheerz.