Who is a Hero?

                                    Success is counted sweetest
                                    By those who never succeed
                                                      -Emily Dickinson

    Whenever I ask kids to tell about their favorite hero, most of them speak about Batman, Spiderman, Wonder woman or others like them. Heroes endowed with super powers, conforming to the image the media wants to portray. Children look up to them hoping to be like them, dreaming of the day when something remarkable will happen in their lives.

    Yet out of many of the children, there is one or two who do not have the tall, muscular, super powered heroes in their minds. They speak about ordinary people; people like their father or mother who have made a difference in their lives. It makes me wonder if adult, like children, need in this chaotic and ruthless world...heroes.

    Childhood seems much too short for an adult. They can’t help but look back and wonder what happened to those days when they would sit and play with figures of their superhero; dreaming of making a difference in the world. Many of us were told by our loved ones; we were and are special; why perhaps we still don’t know. We like to hold on to the belief that at least when our mother father or teacher or sibling had told us we were special, they meant it. It makes the pain of loss, failure and inability to reach our goals so much more bearable.

    My question to you is who is, your hero? For an adult this seems to be a silly question, lacking any depth or seriousness. But, taking away time from our hectic, if we sit quietly and think, the answer we come up with might enlighten us. Not because of some baseness to the answer, but because the might be so simple. Too simple for us to fathom in this complex structure that we have built around us.
   
    A hero for an adult can be the peer who warns him that he has made a mistake and should correct it. A hero can be the person who sees a child and mother and offers them a sit in a crowded bus, it can be the average looking guy crossing the road; getting drenched in the rain; in search of a gift for his child. It may be the mother who works full time; comes home exhausted and still plays with her child; brushing away her fatigue with a smile. A hero can a father who travel great distances for his work and still comes home everyday with a small token for his child and wife. A hero can be a friend who helps another find a job, or helps with next month’s rent. The doctor who is still able to compassionate and feels a squeeze inside every time he can’t cure a patient is a hero. The teacher who takes extra care to prepare her lessons for her students is a hero. Heroes are anonymous faces, too many to be remembered, filled with sweat and labor building cleaning, fixing for  the affluent, not expecting gratitude in return, not expecting any appreciation for their toil. Heroes are those who like the poet Dickinson says, never give up. They challenge adversity and meet it head on. They don’t expect a rosy life, but face up to the cruel fact that life of some are meant to be difficult. We can become our own heroes by emerging through this tangled web we call life or we can sit back and let it get the better for us.

    The term hero is unusual in its simplicity; yet complex in the expectations we have from it. Life we have all heard is meant to be difficult and to hold on to the belief that there is a hero gives us hope that in this frigid world, perhaps there is one person waiting to be there for us.

    In the busy streets of cities, the faces are countless, each losing there texture, coloring and identity. We pass each other, ignoring the other, scared of any form of contact. Not wanting to look or stare; incapable of reaching the other at even a human level. Perhaps in our search for perfection and pressure to conform to society’s expectations we have forgotten we are the supreme creation. We are unable to touch one another or help each other; anyone who breaks convention and wants to help must have their own agenda. That is what we have become. No longer worthy of being called the greatest creation, we advocate beauty on the outside, cold cash, materialistic achievements, misguided pride, and misbehavior. Parents no longer teach their children the importance of self-respect and principles, for what is it worth in this world of cynics? No longer do we have room for the educated or the intelligent. We have no time to read Shakespeare or Hardy to our child. We want to boast and indulge in our arrogance, not realizing that our time is so little and so precious. Indeed we are in dire need of heroes.

                        I am…yet what I am, none care or knows
                        My friends forsake me like a memory lost
                                                                        - John Clare

    As time has passed and the years have added their experiences on me, I have realized that I will only be a passing thought for those who never really knew me. But my deeds though small, perhaps will speak on my behalf and tell this world there was once he who did so and so. Perhaps that is why heroes appeal to us, for their deeds speak for themselves and outlive the person. No matter who we are, we always long for a hero amidst us, someone who will stand for all that we would like to believe in. But I have realized that heroes are anything but super. They are everyday people with their sunken eyes and worn faces who hold our hands and guide us, whispering not to give up, pleading for us to understand that life is a cycle, the injustice done today will be punished tomorrow, and reminding us a higher power is watching and perhaps testing us.
         
    Even I, as a pessimist, believe in everyday heroes. The hardest part however is not looking for a hero; but being one. We as humans have the choices and the chances to be hero-like for many; especially for our future generation. The irony of that is we have no super powers to help us, only experience, belief in the truth and knowledge from those before us.

    Believing in the truth and holding on to our principles comes at a great cost. A true hero is able to give up the comforts of acceptance and fame for doing the right thing. That is what we also need to do…rise above the wrongs and protest against it; even if the cost is dear to us. I would like to hold on to the belief that is for a better tomorrow and a clearer conscience. For now all we can do is to try to make some sort of difference especially in the lives of the ones we love, to follow our beliefs and to help others who are more unfortunate than us. Heroes do not have to fight nine-headed monsters or fling laser blasts at their opponents; a hero can be an average person just like you and me.

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