Posted by Benjamin on: 07.30.2008 /
Yesterday I wrote, as my facebook status, that “Benjamin feels like a loser”. Today one of the most amazing people I know wrote on my wall, I suppose in response to that status. She wrote “You are a hero to me.”
This person really … gets to me. With some people I would see a statement like that and think “Yeah, whatever, you’re just trying to help me feel better.” This person has *very* seriously affected the lives of hundreds of people, many of them in dire straits, for the better, undergoing a lot of suffering in the process. And she’s saying to me “You are a hero to me.” She is one of the most truthful people I know, and I’m saying that as one whose NO is against lies and half-truths. I don’t know what to do with that. I don’t feel at all like a hero, nor even an anti-hero, but more like the dumb driven cattle in Longfellow’s Psalm of Life.
What makes a hero? Do you know anyone who seems a hero to you, but perhaps not to themselves or others? What makes them a hero? Have you told them?
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Comment by: joe
1 07/31/08 5:56 AM | Comment Link |I probably wouldn’t call you a hero, but then not a loser either. I’m not sure I use the word hero at all, maybe I should.
Comment by: martin gugino
2 08/1/08 3:56 AM | Comment Link |The poor man in the temple.
Comment by: benjamin ady
3 08/1/08 12:48 PM | Comment Link |Martin,
Is that from a story–the poor man in the temple? I don’t recognize the allusion.
Joe–yeah, I hear you. I tend not to use the word “hero” either. Megan and I occasionally have this friendly argument where I’ll say “There are no good leaders”, but which I suppose I mean to say “There are no real heroes”, and she’ll say “Oh yes there are”, and I’ll say “Well name one”.
But maybe, as you said, I should … work more on looking up toward someone, and wanting to emulate them, at least with regards to *some* of their characteristics and attributes. Perhaps my cynicism actually harms me.
Comment by: brooke
4 08/1/08 11:57 PM | Comment Link |oh i have heros, and they change sometimes. right now one of my heros is my friend clint. he’s kind of dork, but he’s awfully inspiring, and even though he’s this up and coming hero academic type in my field, seems to actually give a crap about me and says he liked the work i did for the paper we wrote together. he’s annoyingly humble too. ;)
other heros? my young friend jyoti, just because she puts one foot in front of the other every day and she’s got this huge sensitive heart that she’s still trying to figure out how to work it properly.
Comment by: Benjamin
5 08/6/08 3:48 PM | Comment Link |Brooke,
That’s awesome–putting one foot in front of the other is pretty darn heroic sometimes. I think I’d like to meet Jyoti.