Play me a hero!

Ah, this is the time when we are looking at who we consider to be our heroes. We’ve been watching references to this phenomenon on the news media, in the paper and in public, generally and especially today..

I would assert that for most of us, we usually begin any conversation of this sort with a silent affirmation, “I’m not a hero and couldn’t be one.” I want to suggest a few thoughts about that…and I’m interested in the specific part that my dictionary includes in the definition. ‘someone admired for his achievements and qualities.’

What this means for me is that ‘hero’ is more general than specific. I do not know who said the following words, and they seem to suggest something to me.
‘Before we are born we stand before the master sculptor and are given shape.
If our design is a hammer, then we celebrate life by building things. If we are shaped like a hoe, then we celebrate life by nurturing the planet and growing things. If we are designed like a flute then we celebrate life by inspiring and healing others with music.’

Can we take a closer look and maybe recognize someone who is important to each of us? I bet we can! Maybe by simply looking in the mirror!

Maybe those  ‘acclaimed’ heroes wanted us to notice that they were more than mere pawns of society, they really challenged life and did what they felt called to do, not what others may have felt they were suited for.

When I look into my own life, I have to include my father as one of my heroes.
Due to circumstances, I did not grow up with him. I got to know him when I was a young adult and was very impressed with who I saw him to be.
With little formal education, growing up during the depression years, he rose to be a construction superintendent, building highways, power dams, airports and other major projects.

This isn’t what makes him a hero to me, for he may have just been doing what he was good at….and he certainly was skilled at what he did! But that would be seeing the work and missing the man.
I saw the real man when I went to work for him.

His close friends always referred to him as a great community builder and that is what his real attraction seemed to be. He used as many local folks as possible in his projects, moulding them into a community that forwarded that project to its completion, celebrating everyone in the process.
Many tradesmen followed him from project to project, wanting to remain a part of that community.

Although a superintendent, he always tried to see the other side of any problem, and usually left conflicts by giving both sides a wink as if to suggest, “We’re a team, a community, so let’s work together and not be too serious. We can work it out.” And they did. His total focus was on his people and he became my hero as long as he lived.

We can find many acts of heroism in the lives of our families, including our children, and our friends. We don’t have to wait for any kind of public consensus about their issues in order to call them heroes.

I see heroes in people struggling to make a living, raising their children in dire situations, children surviving unhappy family life and having their lives matter, teachers putting everything of themselves into the futures of their students, tradesmen doing their jobs in uncomfortable situations while adding integrity to make sure they create projects that truly represent themselves, business persons expressing themselves in their companies and contributing to the common good, media folks acting out of authenticity and integrity in the understanding that their reporting creates public consensus, and I could go on to include doctors opening themselves up to a broader view of medicine, clergy opening up to as broader view of humanity, and politicians opening up to a broader view of their constituents.

We have created a society of paradigm and confusion for coming generations, in which we are questioning much of our tightest held opinions.

It may be necessary to alter our life course drastically as real experiences dictate will be required. That’ll take heroism on all our parts.

My children and grandchildren are having to function within boundaries that are becoming dimmer as science and consciousness are pushed to their edges.
It might be said that it’ll take real heroes to steer the ship of state in the waters we have chosen to navigate.
What will matter is that we recognize and nurture the heroism that will be required to sustain our future.
How? Could it be that if your life matters to me, then my life will find the soul needed to make a difference in our whole  community?

Rich