My Heroes

Most everyone I could consider heroes are members of my family. I get to see all of their trials and errors, triumphs and failures, but I’ve never seen anyone of them curl up in a ball and say it was hopeless.

Those heroes immediate to me are:

My daughter Baleigh because she shows an innocence that reminds me that the shit which does not matter, can truly slide.

My brother Alex because he intelligently tries to break from the herd mentality.

My Mom for her demonstrable patience.

My Grandfather for his community service and self-sacrifice to just causes. The man is 100% blind and still volunteers as a weight trainer at his local YMCA.

My Grandmother because even after being made bedridden from a stroke, she worries most about who’s going to care for her man.

I've also friends for whom I find their bravery in the face of living outside of cultural norms very admirable and a few others who seemed to find the will to pick themselves up and dust off the remains of yesterday.

I love you all.

I appreciate each of these individuals and the roles they’ve played in my life. This is a definitive example of the world we share. No single person is so independent as they say. The truly independent person would be living off the land in some cabin in the woods. Even when writing of it Henry David Thoreau couldn’t do that. Theodore Kazinski could though, so maybe you’d do well to examine whose ideal you’re holding up.

Point made; we are all here because someone has been something to us and we’d all do well to appreciate those persons rather look towards those who desire nothing but to take something they have not worked for. The only places that give free lunches are homeless shelters and prisons; don’t allow yourself to become either one, but be something to someone.

Anyone can be a hero if they wanted, just few choose too because it requires effort. We do live in a vacuum and everything you have and everything you are came from somewhere. Just don't forget to redistribute what you’ve been given.

That redistribution and being involved is the key to being your own hero and your biggest hero should always be yourself. When you are your own, you know that pedestal you stand on is solid. From the age of about 10 until I was about 24 I volunteered with geriatric patients in nursing homes. Following a situation of my own I went on to working with brain injury survivors until about five years ago when I started tutoring and sometimes teaching English to refugees and international students.

You can only milk the glory of one accomplishment for so long and eventually that cat will learn its own way out of the tree. With that in mind it’s easy to ask, “What have you done today?”