On Being Heroic...

This discourse is about an assignment, a task everyone should accept as such and as a personal mission in life: making the world a better place. We all were young and admired leading figures, we all idolized sole individuals that were doing tremendous things in life: heroes.

Do we have what it takes to be a hero? Most of us do not feel obligated to do their deeds in the limelight, most of us are too afraid and too lazy to do something for the benefit of others, and most of us are merely uncomfortable to take responsibility, for being responsible regarding one’s own business can be a vast and hard enough task that is showing us as individuals the boundaries of our capability. So why, if we can hardly keep our own life together, if we can barely manage our own affairs turn to others, turn towards the world we live in, turn towards our environment and do something that does not benefit us as individuals? If you think about if from that perspective, does it not reveal to you the foundation of selfishness? Does it not depict how narrow-minded we are as human beings? Why is it like that? Do we admire our heroes, not only the ones we admired as kids, but also the idols we admire now, because their devotion fascinates us? Do we idolize these leading figures because they have what we lack, selflessness and a heart for our fellows? Get up and do something for the benefit of others; everyone has a hero or heroine inside. There is no need to be able to fly, there is no need to be Mr. Bond hunting down terrorists to save the world, there is no need to be rewarded by the appreciation of our friends and fellows. There is one reward only that is ought to be greater than all materialistic and extrinsic gratifications: SATISFACTION!

In this context I cannot help but present an imposing paradigm being shown in the movie Men in Black II, where Agent T and Agent J have a piece of cake in a cafe. T is being asked why he joined the secret authority and replies by mentioning his love for action. J responds: “You wanted to play hero. Well, you joined the wrong organization. You ever hear of James Edwards?” – No – “Well, he saved the lives of fifteen people tonight, But nobody knows he exists. And if nobody knows he exists, how can anybody love him?”

In my opinion that is a great example of what being a hero is all about, it is not the respect, success or recognition – a hero is characterized by the intention to help selflessly, by declining his or her own needs  in order to help others. Life is not Hollywood, life has its own script, its own screenplay, its own rules. Just ask yourself in which realm you can be a hero, in which realm you can do something for others. The greatest heroes are the ones that have so much heart that they do great actions without demanding or expecting any kind of reward in return.

You will be suprised how pleasing it is to help others and then retrospect upon your deeds figuring how that little thing you have done brought a smile to another person’s face. Maybe it is not meant to be for you to be rewarded, maybe it is your destiny to help and then exclude yourself from the situation, a person has been helped, a person has been made smile – and your work is done, your mission complete. I can guarantee you, that your actions will be not only an example to others, they will be a motivation to others, and people will recognize your good will. People are shy and may not tell you how impressed they were by your good deeds, but they surely see your good will and will internalize it. And who knows, maybe one day you come to a train station not even being able to help the old woman walking on crutches, because other ‘everyday life’ heroes came first, and who knows who of those was inspired by the good deeds he saw you doing? It is incredible and simply transcendental what big of an effect we can have on others, and it is amazing how everyone can do his or her part to make this world a better place, to change something, to be a hero for others.

However, do not try to control and manage the world and its issues and affairs right away, begin in a small ambit, a domain you can influence and control and where you can make changes for the better. The nineteenth century brigadier general Albert Pike wrote in his work Morals and Dogma:

“Many great deeds are done in the small struggles of life. There is, we are told, a determined though unseen bravery, which defends itself, foot to foot, in the darkness, against the fatal invasion of necessity and of baseness. There are noble and mysterious triumphs, which no eye sees, which no renown rewards, which no flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields, which have their heroes - heroes obscure, but sometimes greater than those who become illustrious.”

Our “insignificant” lives need heroes and heroines, too, go out there…and be a hero!!!