SINGING: ...Long time passing...

Where have all the heroes gone?

Since the passing of Neil Armstrong, people have been mourning not only his death, but the loss of an American hero.  I’ve heard people asking, “Who are our heroes today?”

It’s gotten me thinking, that question. What makes a hero? What makes one like Neil Armstrong? Where are we looking for new heroes?

My heroes are the people who put their personal stuff aside for the sake of a greater need, or a greater purpose than their own.  Heroes are people who set aside even their interest in their own survival, in favor of something they perceive is more important.

What have we been teaching our kids, since the 60s?  There has been some good stuff, some really important stuff, but an awful lot of emphasis has been on personal comfort, personal goals and satisfactions.  This is pretty much antithetical to the creation of heroes.

It is not about morals, conforming to some code of behavior that is, when it comes down to it, a cultural variable rather than a natural absolute of being human.  It is about the culture of selfishness, of 'having it my way' with no thought of greater benefit to the community. It is about celebrating the people who gratify our pleasure, or titillate our schadenfreude: lauding glamour over substance.
 

What are your imperatives in life?  Are they all about you, your happiness, your comfort and gratification?
What would you give them up for? What would you risk them all for?

What would you put your very life on the line for?

What would you give up your hope of happiness for?
 

A lot of us can’t imagine ourselves as heroes until we are in circumstances that demand it, doing what needs to be done, totally forgetting our personal risk. Heroics happen like that, because we have it in us, as human beings, to forget self, and act without self-interest: heroically.

And then there are those who put themselves at risk every day, with conscious intent, with full awareness. Soldiers in a combat zone… law enforcement officers… firemen and emergency responders…  If you ask them, they are not heroes, they are just doing a job.  But they chose that job, and they go out every day regardless of risk, and do what needs to be done.

Those who mourn Neil Armstrong as one of the last American heroes, are not feeling the loss of the hero: It is  Hero on a pedestal that they mourn.  They are looking for the Hero that brings us together as a community to celebrate that we have produced among us, such a one! He must not only have done great things, he also has to be one who can stand up there, and not fall from the height of our expectations.

There are plenty of heroes around nowadays… but precious few pedastals.  Maybe that’s what we need to be wondering about.