Since the childhood humanity has being fascinated by the topic of heroes.
They are not those regular people, they are a special kind of a human.
Warning: This post will get pretty much ironic from now on.
Super-heroes are even a better thing, right ?
During the good part of the twentieth century the fascination with the super-heroes went through the roof – be it either James Bond or Captain Marvel.
Huge numbers of people are day-dreaming of becoming Batman and Supergirl, or some other new kind of hero.
Disclaimer: I enjoy watching some super-heroes movies myself.
It seems that almost nobody cares about the regular Joe/Jane, cause yeah, breaking news – they are not heroes.
We praise the heroes (and sometimes only the heroes), we put their pictures on the wall, we admire & celebrate them.
We compose music and make films about them (cutting of unpleasant corners and increasing drama … Hollywood-izing them).
We build monuments for them and raise those super-people into god-like status.
Who wants to praise a regular person who has their problem sides? Regular – Meh …
People still love “flawed superheroes”, because they “bring us closer and makes us feel more connected to the super-powers”.
Superb!
IRL – In Real Life
The person doing careful planning and avoiding a disaster is not a hero, the hero is the person standing in front of the group of people resolving the disaster.
The planning is not visible, the thoughts and design most of them time are not appreciated – it is like “anyone would do the same”.
An architect who designed safe system is almost never praised – because yo, that’s their REGULAR job.
A security consultant who stops a security leakage is hailed as the savior, cause they could do what nobody else could (forgetting that maybe nobody was given that chance at all).
An athlete who scores a winning goal at the last minute is definitely a hero,
while the defender sweating those 7 games & 120 minutes per some of the games is just a player who had the privilege to be there.
The quarterback is always THE hero and not the linebackers who shall protect him at almost any cost.
Maybe a running back, maybe the defender making the last save, but not the REGULAR players who made it possible by covering everything else.
A fireman saving someone famous or in a crisis situation is a true hero, but a regular fireman saving lives on daily basis is not a hero – she is JUST doing her job.
It is great admiral who wins the battle is the hero, but not the crew of the one of the ships who turns the battle around with the personal courage & loss.
Few people will give a moment to the thought that the hero them self has been actually responsible for the crisis/disaster,
by firing the competent people in the respective department or by ignoring all the warnings of the disaster.
End of Irony Warning. :)
Who can you be?
You can be a hero, but even better –Â be a kind human who helps preventing disasters from taking place, by doing the right kind thing … and even if this right thing for humanity might not be always the right thing for yourself (Yeah, in our ego-driven society this sounds awfully wrong).
Most people who made our lives so joyful are actually hidden and will never be recognized by anyone.
That waiter who gave you a smile and a kind word when the world was falling apart,
a colleague who simply took a work item off your plate while you were loosing your head,
a designer who builds a useful system, carefully preventing accidents,
a security architect who cares about the protection of the business,
a thoughtful worker who thinks about the bottom line of the total result, etc
You know what, at very least, be someone who TRULY cares.
And you definitely can be grateful for all the help & slack that you have gotten you so far in life, because let’s be frank – there were so much of it.