My Heroes!

Heroes. It is a term that has been thrown around for as long as legends have existed. What is the definition? “A man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.” The other listed is, “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.” Also listed was the main character of a story or movie. It is obvious that people like Captain America, Superman and Green Lantern are heroes. They are the main characters of stories and those characters fit the definition. After all that is the point of them.

However about 6 months or so ago someone had asked me who my heroes were. To this day I have not answered the question. I would like to list characters in stories and movies, but those are not real people. I could easily Say Superman, MacGuyver, Michael Knight, etc. While it is true those characters do inspire me and did help shape me into the person I am. The truth is that we as humans are flawed. Survival instinct is in our nature and thus doing whatever it takes to better seat ourselves in the world is what the majority of our kind do. It is the sad truth. I wanted to make a list of the heroes I really had. Ones I could walk up to and thank them. I went through long lists. For instance, my first throught went to Hulk Hogan. I grew up with only pseudo male influence. So here was this larger than life person, who said his prayers and ate his vitamins. Told us to eat right and stay strong and do the right thing all the time. We had to make hard decisions and when the finale arrived good would always triumph over evil. He was a real person…. … Of course, we all know it was a character. But it was still something he did right? He really was like that for the most part. That was his intent? Too bad I later found out he did it all for money and popularity and later kind of shunned the whole concept. Insulted it even. So he now falls into that “character” category. The Hulk Hogan Character of the 80’s was a hero. But not the man who played him for so many years. Don’t get me wrong, I would still like to thank him for playing that character and how that character altered my life. But again, I am not sure if he counts.

Superman, well, there is one person I think who was far better than the character he portrayed. It may be hard to think that a real life person can be more heroic than The Man of steel himself. But Christopher Reeve in any form is defiantly on my list of Heroes. Dare I say in the number one slot? I dare, I dare! He was the man who faced all adversity in his accident and continued. Watch any of the special features on the Superman movies he did and everyone talks about the kind of person he was, before and after the accident. Richard Donner who directed the core of those superman films said that the man that made the world believe he could fly, made him believe he would be seen walking again. If you do not know who Christopher reeves is… google him! Wikipedia is your friend.

Overcoming odds, and fighting for your life and surviving and helping others, and saving lives even. I think those qualify as terms for being a hero, a classic hero even. While there may be no bad guys to fight of while they are trying to take over the world. Cancer truly is a fight. None know this better than Lance Armstrong. I have never had cancer (knock on wood) and hopefully never have to worry about it. I raise money for fighting cancer anyhow, because it’s the right thing to do. If you don’t know Lance Armstrong then do as said above google and Wikipedia. This I’ll give you a brief rundown. Multiple kinds of cancer, the doctors outlook for him was poor, he came back to win the Tour De France a record 7 times in a row, opened the Lance Armstorng Foundation. The Foundation helps people with cancer by helping with medical bills, research programs, and education program. Many people have felt that the Lance Armstrong Foundation saved their lives.

Theodore Roosevelt. Now, there is a hero! If you want a real life version of the classic storybook hero , none comes as close as Teddy Roosevelt, our 25th President of the United States. One of three sitting Presidents to ever obtain the Nobel Peace Prize. While he was a well known and famous hunter he rallied for animal rights before the thought of animal rights even existed. He also rallied for the right to fair pay and equal rights. While I am no historian, I know full well that “Teddy” (which he hated to be called) was indeed a hero. And the reason we have teddy bears to protect our children.

I wouldn’t put these three men in any order. There is no way of knowing who is more heroic than someone else. I could go on with the list, but most of them are passed away. It is sad that most of our worlds hero’s are gone from us. We don’t recognize what they have done for us until after they are gone. So if you know someone who you look up to, a hero and never realized it until just now. Or Haven’t yet said anything. Do me a favor, at least send them a thank you. You do not have to tell them what for. Just, tell them thank you.