A Discussion of Heroes

Heroes?  You want to talk about heroes?  Ok, do I just get to list one?  If that’s the case I do NOT have the ability to decide on which one.  Should I list them by genre, era, media?  Seriously,  I LOVE heroes and have tons of them.  OK, let’s do this in a somewhat organized manner:

REAL Heroes (meaning they are flesh and blood, breathing, currently alive heroes):
Nora Roberts – Love her work, though currently her stuff has been a little cookie cutter
Patricia Cornwall – Seriously, her medical thrillers are amazing
Sylvester Stallone – This guy has an amazing work ethic, is a good father and has some amazing talents, he paints, he writes, he directs, he acts…..And anyone who can create an Action Feast like Expendables gets a hero nod from me.  Seriously, he’s got CHUCK NORRIS in Expendables II!!!

Real Heroes (Meaning they used to be alive, flesh and blood heroes):
Christopher “Kit” Carson – seriously makes Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett look like pansies
Audie Murphy – 5’6″ and kicked major butt in World War II, got turned away from every Military Division but still didn’t give up until the Army finally enlisted him, was wounded, multiple times, saved his friends and fellow soldiers countless times, received every medal of honor our government can bestow, AND when he came back advocated and fought for soldiers to receive care for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Robert Louis Stevenson – a little bit of a cad, but his work inspired me
Errol Flynn – until I learned more about the man outside of the movies
John Wayne – Who doesn’t love the Duke?
Katherine Hepburn – Never played the damsel in distress, always presented an intelligent, strong and savvy woman, way ahead of her time
The list could go on but I will stop myself here and move to the next category.

Fictional or legendary heroes:
Apollo
Anubis
Ankou
Sir Galahad
Sir Gawain
Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe
Robin Hood
Zorro – Who makes the sign of the Z (I am giving away my age and singing the theme song right now)
Batman – because he doesn’t have any super powers and he still kicks butt!
Gambit from Xmen
And on and on and on.

Ok, so I have tons of heroes, maybe that’s why it’s so easy for me to be polytheistic, but I have heroes for every aspect of life.  Heroes are essential as guidelines of how we should be as people.  Their actions and stories lend us strength to do the right thing no matter the cost or the odds against us.  We need heroes, the same way the peoples of Ancient Greece needed their gods.  Heroes reflect what the human being can achieve if they rise above doubts, fears and weakness.  They are who we all want to be.

I totally agree that heroes do not necessarily have to be larger than life, but their purpose is to show and guide us to be more than we are, to be better and stronger than we could ever imagine we can be.  That is why many of us have heroes that are personal, not known by anyone other than ourselves.  Because they are the ones that enable us to do more, achieve more.  They are our heroes because they make us be who we want to be.

Heroes, not just the iconic, larger than life, fictional or spiritual heroes, but the down to earth, everyday people who somehow manage to rise above the chaos and stand out from the crowd, are essential to the fabric of human existence.  By our very definition we are creatures of the herd, milling about, reacting only when there is something to react to.  I think in our deepest core we do not believe that we have the capability to do more than be born, work, procreate and die.  It’s part of our physical nature, but there is more the human animal than just the physical, evolved behavior.  We have thoughts, and souls and we want, in our deepest core, to be more than we are.  To somehow matter.  We are all part of the herd, but every single one of us wants to rise above the crowd and be noticed as something unique.  That is the purpose of the hero, whether fiction or fact.  They show us, that no matter what, there is more to us as individuals and as a species.  They show us that against all odds the good in humanity can triumph.  It may be fiction or religious stories that inspire us, but their purpose has been service.  To inspire.  A culture without heroes has either reached its zenith of spiritual evolution or has simply given up.

It is almost essential that a good hero have weakness’.  If they did not, then all of their “grand” accomplishments would mean very little.  If they didn’t have to struggle to overcome obstacles they wouldn’t be heroes, they would just be very lucky.  The weakness’ of our heroes helps us to relate to them, helps us realize that even we can accomplish great things, that we can overcome our own weakness’ and short comings to be the person we want to be.  Without  weakness’ there would be no human connection between heroes and the people who admire them.  It is the triumph over the adversity that makes them heroic not the final result, it is the battle over themselves and their surroundings.  The fact that they will keep going regardless of the Kryptonite is what makes them a real hero.