Heroes

I just read my friend Tom's post, was going to reply, and decided to do it here. Over this past few weeks, I have seen many heroes in action. No capes or tights, no flying like a speeding bullet, but heroes nonetheless. People with nothing to gain opening up their houses to friends, coworkers, family, and anyone else without power or shelter after the winter storms. People from states away coming to fix power lines to help a neighbour who will never know their name. That's the kind of thing that restores someone's faith in people.

We all behave ourselves when someone is watching. We don't do anything to socially damaging or heinous when eyes are on us (except maybe for effect, which is another story entirely). But our acts of valor in the spotlight are not what makes heroes. It's the unsung songs, the untold stories of kindness and compassion. We remembered that after 9/11. I think we have begun to forget it again. No, not begun, almost succeeded. Inundated as we are by celebrity scandals, drug scandals, sex scandals, political scandals, economic... well, you get the idea, the story becomes more about the nefarious, the careless, and the just plain stupid. The man who helps a kid find their dog, the woman who stops and gives someone directions, the child who talks with someone so they know they're not alone... small acts make immeasurable waves.

In another vein, I was listening to the radio while driving to Louisville, and they were having a radiothon for Kosair Children's Hospital. People were giving to a cause that may never touch them, for people who would never know them, and they were giving with generosity, even during these tight financial times. Those people are heroes. Not the athletes, the TV stars, the singers and everyone else we look up to. We need to learn not to look up to find heroes, but to look around, and be heroes.