Where do we find our heroes?
I guess it depends on where we look for them.
In our culture of mass media and entertainment, we often find them in the shows we watch on television, the movies we rent, the theatres we attend. They’re to be found in the books we read, the magazines we browse through, and the music we pipe in through our ear buds.
In short, they’re out there.
Some may be fictional and some may be real, but regardless, we want them to exist. In fact, there’s something in all of us that needs them to exist. I mean, really, what kind of world would it be without heroes? Who would save us from the villains? Who would make everything right in the end? Who would there be to cheer for? From whom would we derive the inspiration that lifts us out of our seats, wherever it is that we happen to be seated?
The speaking/performing/presentation group absolute visited St. Joseph’s Catholic High School on Friday, and they came to talk to us about heroes. And they came to talk about themselves.
Each, in their own way, has experienced hardship. Each has endured a unique burden of darkness, something they carried
with them, something they hid from the world, whether in shame, in hurt, or the loneliness of despair. Each told us of something, or rather someone, that arrived at a critical point. Someone who took the time to stop and notice. Someone who both looked at them and saw them, and bestowed a sense of value upon them. Someone who cared.
These were their heroes. Nobody came dressed in tights. There were no flowing capes. No buildings were vaulted in single or several bounds. Just people. Plain old regular, ordinary people types, who stopped, reached out of themselves, and touched somebody else in a way that continues to resonate in the lives of these young people.
These were not the only heroes spoken of today. The good works of others were pointed out as well, missions in the third world, hungry people being fed, homeless people being sheltered, and the like. The timing of the message was particularly poignant, as St. Joseph’s just launched their Dominican Republic Team on their mission only yesterday, a group of young people bent on making the world a better place by offering their love and assistance to a small, but grateful part of it.
Today, absolute tours the country offering a message of hope, and a challenge to the audiences in front of them. The message is to make a choice. That is, choose not to be small. Choose to place value on yourself, to appreciate your worth, indeed to love yourself. Not in arrogance or superiority, but to learn to love yourself comfortably. To be at ease with who you are, and not necessarily who you think others would have you be. And then, once comfortable with who you are, and your value to the world and the people in it, to further choose to not make others small. To show them respect, to assist them with the discovery of their value. To reach outside of yourself and touch another with the simplicity of your caring.
To be a hero.
So where do we find our heroes? I suppose the answer is all around us.
And in us.
