In today's society, a great deal of people use the word to describe their favorite sports player. Tabloids and magazines have reached a point of using the term in a context that borders on the ridiculous. Comic books of course use it with the attachment of "super" in front of it. There is also that section of society who feels the term only applies to those in the military or public service such as policemen or fireman. Some people consider those who bring great change and/or great influence to be heroes. Then again, there are those who would call someone who is able to get "dollar you call it night" at the local bar a hero.
To me, at its truest essence, it defines someone who moves forward when forward seems impossible, someone who exhibits ethics, morals, and integrity beyond reproach, someone who is able to give love and compassion to those who not only may not be deserving of it, but to those that others will refuse it, someone who inspires and creates hope where hope is a memory, and/or someone who is able to create a path that allows others to know, value, and then reach their own true potential! Someone who just makes you want to do and be more, do and be better.
I guess the reason I felt compelled to write this blog is not because of the particular definition others feel makes up a hero, but because of the need that some feel to be so close minded to the particular definition others feel makes up a hero. We have so many heroes in our world today and the fact is MANY of them go unnoticed and unappreciated. Unless you have spent your life under a rock, most people know the names J.F.K, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Mother Teresa, or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Have you ever heard of Justin Churchman or Lisa Nigro or Gabriel Whaley? The young high school student, Justin Churchman simply wanted to help give homes to people in Juarez, Mexico and was able to reach his goal of building18 homes by his 18th birthday. Lisa Nigro serves 36,000 free meals a year through her Inspiration Cafe. A nonprofit organization that she started that also provides counseling, restaurant job training, and subsidized housing to 15,000 people. Gabriel Whaley wanted to attend soccer camp when he was 10, but his parents struggled to pay for it so he borrowed his dad's socks, found discounted gear, and showed such hustle he won the camp's spirit award. Now in his 20's, that same drive inspired him to start Kicking4Hunger. It helps struggling families on and off the field by offering free soccer instruction to kids ages 5 to 15 in exchange for donations of nonperishable canned goods. Since 2006 Gabriel has donated approximately 17,000 lbs of food and has coached over 1,200 kids. There is a new show out called "Big Tiny" which is about a brother and sister who are the worlds smallest primordial dwarfs. When I look at what those two have to go through just to get a bowl of cereal, on top of everything else they go through in their life, to me, that makes them heroes. I heard a story the other day about a family of siblings, one has a Ph.D. in Rocket Science specializing in jet propulsion, two of them are doctors, and the youngest is the Chief Financial Officer of a major company as well as being a certified public accountant. Do you know what their mother does for a living? She was a cafeteria lady in a high school! Folks, you can slice any way you want, but that is a hero and one hell of a successful parent!
The shameful part is most of us never hear about these people or people like them because in our society today we have created a environment where if you are not wearing a cape, a uniform, or a sports uniform, you are not doing anything that could possibly be considered heroic and a great deal of that false philosophy is passed on to our children. This is very evident by who the posters they have plastered on their walls and who they get excited about when you ask them "who is your hero".
My goal is not for my message to come across AT ALL like those people are not also great because that could not be further from the point. Well I take that back. I'm sorry, in my book sports figures are not heroes for simply playing a sport (I know that some do great things off the field and to that I am not referring) in any way, shape, or form and how we idolize them is beyond ridiculous, but that is another blog. My goal is to simply say that maybe we could stop giving the concept of being a hero such a small margin of acceptance and open our minds up to the possibility that heroes can come in many forms, many shapes, many sizes, many colors, many genders. Like I stated before, I think everyone is entitled to their own version of the type of person inspires them and/or their idea of who role models greatness and no one has a right to tell them they are wrong. HOWEVER, that also means there's not ONLY one version of what makes a great person just like there is not a single correct version of anything in life. (Unless we are talking about favorite colors and then hands down, everything but PURPLE is just incorrect!)
"Fight for your opinions, but DO NOT believe that they contain the WHOLE truth or the ONLY truth"...Charles A. Dana
All in all, as always, I hope this blog made you think some, made you laugh some, but I feel it also brings out the question "what's your definition of a hero?" I would really like to know.
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