Being the Superhero in Spite of Fear
I'm not even sure what my life has been these last few months.
I certainly have not been writing, but a lot has been rolling around in my mind. I think that is one of the parts of writing that gets overlooked so often, is its not about pen being put to paper, but all the thought and formulation ahead of that. The mulling of shapeless ideas, that eventually bleed through in themes, thoughts, and words different from how they may have felt to begin with.
In any epic story, our hero will stop their life, go on an amazing adventure, save the world, get the girl, the music plays triumphantly and we all cheer. I always wonder as to the after. Does anyone ever say 'hey Joe, you didn't show up for work for 3 weeks, never called, so you're fired. Oh and since you didn't pay your car payment, your truck got repo'd?' or 'yeah thanks for saving the city Batman, but you also caused over a million dollars in damages to government property so we're seizing the batmobile as collateral until you pay up'.
Of course that never happens, but the reality is that it would. If any of us were to be transported to another world today to save them from the clutches of an evil villain, this world would still go on (except Narnia, well planned C.S. Lewis) and we would all have to come back to pick up the pieces while basking in the ever diminishing praises from the people we saved.
Obviously this is not the real world, and we don't get taken on epic adventures to save the world. At least not typically, I'm sure some people have those days, but most of us do not. That hardly means though that we don't have those opportunities to save someone's world or to be that superhero. That chance to be the someone that changes another someone's life entirely, while still living our everyday.
The last few years I've really felt a passion for helping those who can be helped and a strong dislike against those who let things slip by because its easier to not look. I don't mean the big obvious cases like the Germans who looked the other way for concentration camps, but the every day people who see something wrong and ignore it. The child where something isn't right, the family who is obviously reaching out for help, the known villain who no one wants to accuse, the situations where things just don't add up. I'm not advocating for a police state where we all go around reporting on each other, but we all have circles around us and it is up to us to see what is going on in those circles of people and situations. Where we, as individual people, jump in to help or support or heal. Anyone who knows me knows that I am the first person to be throwing up concerns when I see them and trying to figure out how to fix them. I'm probably exhausting to be around sometimes, but I will never be the person who is interviewed on the news who said 'yeah we all knew things were getting bad, but didn't want to pry'. I especially have no build up time for kids who seem to be in a bad situation, my patience for terrible parents is small, it is probably best I did not get into social work.
Life is not about the big epic moments, but the small ones where we say 'yes' when everyone else says no. Even if that 'yes' comes with lots of reservations, or lack of skills, or times of doubt. Those are the moment where we can each be the hero, in our regular lives, but hopefully still manage to get to work every day.
Years ago I used to watch a movie, called Defending Your Life. Its not the greatest movie ever made but it's cute. The whole premise is that we are each reincarnated time and time again until we can finally master fear. Obviously this is a movie and hardly holy scripture, but the idea of overcoming fear stuck with me from it. Now I don't mean fear of snakes or heights (both of which are perfectly acceptable to be terrified of btw), but real fear. Fear of doing the wrong thing, of being in a scary place, of dealing with scary people, of not knowing what to do, or any number of things. That process of realizing your fear, grabbing hold of it, and not letting it consume you, is what being a hero is. Its running into the metaphorical burning building because it is the right thing to do.
We can't all help everywhere and in everything. I believe we all have different areas of passion and strength, and equally area of weakness or complete lacking of ability. However, in the situations we cannot directly help, we can find that help, or in the ones we can work in, we have to be willing to learn and grow. Giving into fear and worry will never benefit anyone, but being smart and channeling our fear into bravery, will always be the right thing to do.
Finally I close with the clip below. It's a scene from Boondock Saints, which is a cult classic and endlessly popular in some of my circles. The movie itself is about vigilante justice but I believe this part speaks to what is wrong in our society and in so many individual people.
I certainly have not been writing, but a lot has been rolling around in my mind. I think that is one of the parts of writing that gets overlooked so often, is its not about pen being put to paper, but all the thought and formulation ahead of that. The mulling of shapeless ideas, that eventually bleed through in themes, thoughts, and words different from how they may have felt to begin with.
In any epic story, our hero will stop their life, go on an amazing adventure, save the world, get the girl, the music plays triumphantly and we all cheer. I always wonder as to the after. Does anyone ever say 'hey Joe, you didn't show up for work for 3 weeks, never called, so you're fired. Oh and since you didn't pay your car payment, your truck got repo'd?' or 'yeah thanks for saving the city Batman, but you also caused over a million dollars in damages to government property so we're seizing the batmobile as collateral until you pay up'.
Of course that never happens, but the reality is that it would. If any of us were to be transported to another world today to save them from the clutches of an evil villain, this world would still go on (except Narnia, well planned C.S. Lewis) and we would all have to come back to pick up the pieces while basking in the ever diminishing praises from the people we saved.
Obviously this is not the real world, and we don't get taken on epic adventures to save the world. At least not typically, I'm sure some people have those days, but most of us do not. That hardly means though that we don't have those opportunities to save someone's world or to be that superhero. That chance to be the someone that changes another someone's life entirely, while still living our everyday.
The last few years I've really felt a passion for helping those who can be helped and a strong dislike against those who let things slip by because its easier to not look. I don't mean the big obvious cases like the Germans who looked the other way for concentration camps, but the every day people who see something wrong and ignore it. The child where something isn't right, the family who is obviously reaching out for help, the known villain who no one wants to accuse, the situations where things just don't add up. I'm not advocating for a police state where we all go around reporting on each other, but we all have circles around us and it is up to us to see what is going on in those circles of people and situations. Where we, as individual people, jump in to help or support or heal. Anyone who knows me knows that I am the first person to be throwing up concerns when I see them and trying to figure out how to fix them. I'm probably exhausting to be around sometimes, but I will never be the person who is interviewed on the news who said 'yeah we all knew things were getting bad, but didn't want to pry'. I especially have no build up time for kids who seem to be in a bad situation, my patience for terrible parents is small, it is probably best I did not get into social work.
Life is not about the big epic moments, but the small ones where we say 'yes' when everyone else says no. Even if that 'yes' comes with lots of reservations, or lack of skills, or times of doubt. Those are the moment where we can each be the hero, in our regular lives, but hopefully still manage to get to work every day.
Years ago I used to watch a movie, called Defending Your Life. Its not the greatest movie ever made but it's cute. The whole premise is that we are each reincarnated time and time again until we can finally master fear. Obviously this is a movie and hardly holy scripture, but the idea of overcoming fear stuck with me from it. Now I don't mean fear of snakes or heights (both of which are perfectly acceptable to be terrified of btw), but real fear. Fear of doing the wrong thing, of being in a scary place, of dealing with scary people, of not knowing what to do, or any number of things. That process of realizing your fear, grabbing hold of it, and not letting it consume you, is what being a hero is. Its running into the metaphorical burning building because it is the right thing to do.
We can't all help everywhere and in everything. I believe we all have different areas of passion and strength, and equally area of weakness or complete lacking of ability. However, in the situations we cannot directly help, we can find that help, or in the ones we can work in, we have to be willing to learn and grow. Giving into fear and worry will never benefit anyone, but being smart and channeling our fear into bravery, will always be the right thing to do.
Finally I close with the clip below. It's a scene from Boondock Saints, which is a cult classic and endlessly popular in some of my circles. The movie itself is about vigilante justice but I believe this part speaks to what is wrong in our society and in so many individual people.
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