Heroes

The Daily Post topic today is “Who is your greatest hero?”, and I thought to myself that’s an easy one! I’ll be able to write about this subject for hours on end. And then I thought about the subject more closely… your greatest hero. Singular. Eek, I have to make a decision about my greatest hero , and I have so many, I couldn’t possibly choose a favourite. All of the heroes I like are great, but none are greater than any other. It is like being asked to say which is my favourite flavour of potato crisps between roast chicken, cheese and onion, or ready salted. I like all of these flavours. None are better than the other, they are all great, but in different ways. I’m not particularly good at making decisions.

Then, I looked at the word ‘hero’. The first thought that came to mind was the amount of super-heroes that appear on TV, in movies, in books and comics. Surreal people performing extraordinary things on a daily basis, for the good of all. I like Superman. I like Wonder Woman. I like Batman. I like Doctor Who. I like Bananaman. I like Danger Mouse. I like Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. Every one a hero, every one different.

The next thought that came to mind was the variety of ‘ordinary’ people on TV who replace the super heroes. Characters such as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote; Jonathan and Jennifer in Hart To Hart; all of the Charlie’s Angels girls; James Bond and others. Normal folk with interesting jobs. Yet again, completely different people, in the role of heroes.

My third thought was about everyday ‘ordinary’ people, who do not appear on TV unless they appear in a news report or a documentary. The doctors, nurses, firemen (and women), police, ambulance crews, people in the armed forces, and others who regularly save the lives of others as part of their daily jobs. Different people doing different jobs again, but still heroes, especially in the eyes of the people who’s lives they have saved.

And I had another thought. The countless, nameless people who don’t work in the professions mentioned above, yet still provide inspiration to others just by living their lives, doing what they can do to make a difference to the lives of others around them.

And still more thoughts came to me. The mountain climber saving his friend who had fallen; the animal rights activist tending to a wounded animal; the teacher helping a child to read; the passenger giving up his seat on a bus for an elderly lady who had just came aboard. These are not great heroes in the eyes of the whole world, yet they are the greatest hero in the whole world for the person (or animal!) they have helped in that moment.

No, I can’t decide on my greatest hero. I can’t even say that I have a favourite one now, either, as all who I have mentioned have their own individual merits. How can I choose a comic book character over a real person? How can I choose a person who I don’t know over another person I don’t know, for the particular save that they did? How can I choose someone from one of the emergency services over someone from a different profession?

Everyone has the capabilities of being a hero. Some choose to do it already, and to those I stand and salute you. Thank you.

The decision I really need to make isn’t who is my greatest hero. It is whether or not I am capable of doing what any of the great people mentioned above regularly do, if I was ever in a situation where I needed to act.

I’d like to think that I could do so, and hopefully would do so, but I’m not good at making decisions. And that is frightening.

Heroes are fearless, right?