My Hero

You’re my Hero

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s superman! Is this what you think of as a hero? Of ten times in today’s modern fictional stories, a hero is depicted as someone with super human strength, can shoot lasers out of his/her eyes, or has the balance, agility and multiple lives like a cat. This image of a hero comes from years of comic books, television shows and movies portraying people with unusual abilities as heroes. The mere mention of the word “hero” and a person’s mind tends to imagine someone with some sort of amazing power that doesn’t really exist. With this distortion that has been fed to use over time, do know what a true hero looks like? When you see it, would you recognize heroism? There are many differences between these “Hollywood heroes” and an actual hero. I would dare to say that many of you have a hero in your life and may not even know it.
In Hollywood the image of a hero or star is usually produced by someone like Bruce Willis yelling “yippy ki-yay” as he grabs his machine gun, does a jump roll to dodge a barrage of bullets and shoots the gas tanker truck to blow up the bad guy and his cronies. After saving the day the star walks off into the sunset with the girl he saved by his side and they live happily ever after. This is not the description of a true hero and to my knowledge has never happened in real life. The story of a true hero may or may not have a happy ending and most likely does not involve anything blowing up. A hero is an ordinary person in extraordinary situations that have the odds stacked against them and go above and beyond normal expectations to prevail in the end. They are also people that sacrifice of themselves on a daily basis without glitz and glamour or recognition to speak of.
When your mom stayed up all night taking care of your brother when he was sick and still got up to make you breakfast and get you to school. When your neighbor sacrifices time with his family and loves ones to go overseas to fight a war for people of another country so they may have a chance for freedom. That fireman that is awoke by an alarm at 3:00 o’clock in the morning and races to the house on fire, down the street from yours, so that he can go inside to make sure no one is inside. The police woman that responds to a breaking and entry call and chases the suspect tirelessly until she takes him into custody. These are all examples of heroism that happen every day all across this country. Do these people have to do these things? Did they have to choose the careers they did? No. For the most part theses heroic acts are done because they want to help others. They get a kind of satisfaction knowing that they were able to make the life of someone else just a little better or to shed light into the darkness.
A person that faces danger with courage is considered a hero. They exude qualities such as honesty, bravery, nobility and fortitude. Everyone is capable of displaying these behaviors but a hero practices them on a consistent basis and does them while other people aren’t watching. The fact that a typical hero sacrifices themselves for the greater good is a prime example of why they are considered heroes. An actor in the lime light can be referred to as a hero by some but may or may not actually be have those characteristics in real life. They may play a role in a movie that represents someone that watches over and protects the less fortunate. However, in their real life they may be selfish and unwilling to help others even when it is needed.
The popular trend seems to be to label a movie or sports star as a hero based only on the fact that they are famous. Giving this honorable title away without some deep consideration is an injustice to the true heroes of our life. Although a star may well be a hero and do the thing necessary to legitimately obtain that description, being a star alone is not an automatic entitlement to being called a hero. True heroes are ordinary people that do extra ordinary things and deserve to be recognized for their attributes. So tell the hero in your life how much you appreciate them today.