I never tied a towel around my neck to pretend I was
Superman.
The reasons are simple; I was never in the Boy Scouts and the
thought of getting dressed in a phone booth disturbed me. That and the thought of hanging around Lois
Lane bored me to tears. Besides, who dates their coworkers?
Luckily, heroes (at least the fictional type) are plentiful.
And if you aren’t a Superman guy like me, then you have a huge amount of varied
choices. The real world seems to be the place where heroes are in short supply.
We have droves of people to look up to, but most if not all are shallow, and
self-serving. Nothing more than pop culture’s pedestal people, if you will. Those that stand for nothing but
themselves, or worse yet claim they stand for something but are really just a
distraction.
I believe that deep down everyone- and yes I mean everyone-
wants to be a hero. We have two problems;
we have very few examples that have been set, and some of us have a skewed view
of what defines a hero.
We tend to take a grandiose view when it comes to heroes
thinking of things like running into a burning orphanage to save a child, stopping
a hijacker on a plane, foiling a robbery attempt. Often overlooked are those
that volunteer at the orphanage, teaching a free self defense at your rec center,
or counseling ex-criminals and helping them get their lives back on track.
Certainly not taking away anything from those that do, but to
be a hero you needn’t take a bullet, collar a criminal or save a life. There’s
nothing wrong with starting small. Don’t wait for fate to put you in a place
where you have to test your mettle against evil-doers. Begin beating back the darkness
anyway you can here and now. Donate time, money, space, conversation to those
that need it.
Wherever you have a gift, use it to brighten the world. Don’t wait.
Heroes are heroes because the act. They move, they don’t sit around and wait for an opportunity,
create one: find a niche and fill it.
Everyone wants to be a hero- so be one already.
