Category Archives: Heroes

Celebrate the hero you are

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Everyone knows stories of epic struggles. Whether the story of Jason and the Argonauts, Giglamesh, the recently revived 300, stories from your own childhood. For some it may be from video game heroe’s, perhaps Doom or Quake, EverQuest, or WOW. Everyone knows at least one story of an epic struggle. For some it may be a family member who served in the military, and has shared something either they participated in, or an epic story from the branch of service they belonged to.

These are great stories and role models for us to use in our own life. It is always a good choice when life gets hard to think of an epic tale and apply it to our own life. At times though it is hard to make the connection between a mythic hero and ourselves. The jump is pretty great.

A mythic hero struggles against monsters, adversity presented by oceans, mountains, deserts, and dungeons. We on the other hand struggle against the more mundane and boring side of life, broken cars, sudden expenses, family emergencies, or lost jobs.

It is hard to bridge the gap between doing battle with a cyclops and wondering where the money is going to some from to by diapers for our baby. How can we compare an act of heroism against our own life when we have just lost our job? I have never read of a hero that was just told they no longer have a job.

I believe they are out there though. I know they exist. I will even go so far to mention that you know at least one hero who has overcome adversity, loss of a job, family emergencies, or other struggle. On who overcame and conquered whatever lay in their path.

Maybe you are the person I am thinking about? Have you ever considered yourself in a struggle of epic proportions? Maybe you are a student struggling for grades, a homemaker trying to make ends meet with very little, a parent struggling to connect with a teenager. Possibly you are suddenly single, prospects for the near future are bleak, and you wonder how you are going to survive.

While tales of epic struggles rise on mist from the past, or live in the imagination of a game developer, or take place on a battlefield far away and out of sight, there are huge struggles going on all around us that we do not even realize. Everyone knows someone who went through a tremendous struggle of some type and came out victorious. Yet when asked how things were in the midst of the battle of their life, more often than not the person involved in the struggle answers, ‘everything is fine, and you?’

There are the every day struggles that do not garner the spotlight that the rest of us go through as we go through the journey of our lives. We all struggle at some point in our lives against something we feel we are unlikely to defeat, yet somehow we do. We get through college, we find ways to provide for our families, we manage to overcome various afflictions that befall us in our lifetime.

Take a moment or two and reflect on you life and the silent struggles of epic proportions that you survived. Celebrate those victories because they are every bit as grand as any story ever told. Steel yourself in your stories of victory, knowing that you overcame a situation as bad or worse than anything you are now facing or may face in the future.

Reflect on the magic that is in you, the strength you found to not only survive your past or present struggles, learning to thrive because of them. When you have celebrated the hero in you, look at those around you, and know that they too fought their own struggles, scared and silent at the thought they may lose. Know they too fought on and they found victory, and it made them better and stronger. Celebrate the hero in each of us!

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Don’t judge a book by its cover

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I was thinking about the American Viet Nam war and some of the people I knew that took part in it. I do not know if they were heroes while taking part, but I do know they are people forever changed.

One, a young man who went by the name Sailor. Sailor graduated in time for the 1967 Tet Offensive, one of the heaviest fought ground campaigns in the Viet Nam war. I wish I could add more to the story about Sailor other than he graduated, joined up and was killed less than six months later. He was a high school hero to me, but I was not a part of his life. Four other young men from my area joined Sailor over the next year.

Another man I met went by the name Skip. I never knew his real name. Skip had been a Navy Seal, and had seen some serious action during his tour. Skip was a big guy – about six feet tall and well muscled. Skip came back, and married his high school sweetheart a year later. they were deeply in love. Skip had a problem, and his wife suffered terribly for it. Skip suffered from war nightmares. In the six months I knew Skip and his wife, he almost choked her to death three different times – all in his sleep. Their marriage became too dangerous for Skip’s wife, and three close calls were more than enough. When a fourth nightmare happened, Skip was crushing his wife’s throat, and knocked a few teeth out before waking. Their marriage was officially over even though they were still in love with each other.

I drank beer at night with a guy named Bill for a week or so in Colorado. Bill was a wandering transient who could not come to terms with his part of the war. Bill had been a medic in Viet Nam. Medics were sent into direct fire to help care for and remove wounded men. Bill had saved some men during his tour, but many others were left dying as they moaned their lives away as he tried to help. Bill told me he tried to remain a human being do the right thing when he was in Viet Nam. One day Bill received permission to vaccinate a small village of people for local diseases. When Bill came through the village again five day later, all the villagers had had their right arms chopped off. It was punishment for accepting American aid. That was one sight too many for Bill

Then there is Virgil. Virgil was in Viet Nam to assist and help the Vietnamese protect their own people. Besides the normal fighting and killing, Virgil watched a close friend be blown up by a grenade as he picked up a little girl that wandered in out of the jungle and set her on his lap. She had been booby trapped. For years afterwards Virgil was an angry man. He argued with everyone and nothing but solitude and distance from people kept him out of fights.

A few of these men I admired and called friends. Some of them I disliked at times, but not as much as they dislike themselves. All of them hold a place in my heart and memories, and I think about them from time to time. I do not know if any of them ever earned the right to be called ‘Hero’. These men and other men like them deserve respect and remembrance for the sacrifices they made and the problems they live with. They all tried to do what they thought was the most important and correct action at the time.

I know recent returning warriors have their own nightmares and some of them will never be the young men that left to do what they thought was the right thing to do. When you meet these men, and perhaps women too, and they appear as accidents looking for places to happen, keep in mind, that sometime you can not judge a book by its cover.

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George S Patton, American hero and troubled man

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I watched the movie Patton starring George C. Scott today. George C Scott takes on the role of General George S. Patton and makes it very believable. This is not the first time I have watched the movie which came out in 1970 and I doubt it will be the last time I watch this movie. The movie revolves around General George S Patton and his remarkable achievements during World War II as a predominant commanding general of American allied participation during the war.

Of course most of my uncles were veterans of either World War II or the Korean war and opinion usually flowed freely about WWII field commanders and who was the best. Of course as it turned out, all the men present served under different commanders. Naturally each man thought his commander was the best of the bunch and the others were second rate wanna be’s. This conflict is present in the movie also. The Allied forces had some pretty large ego’s involved in their efforts and those ego’s come through pretty well.

The reason I bring up the movie is because of the feelings that Patton invoked in his time and the feelings the movie invokes. Patton is portrayed as a troubled hero who has no political savvy in a time when the world was changing. Patton is portrayed as a hero and and a man in the the movie. General Patton also lived and breathed war. Per the movie he believes he has lived many life times and fought in most great recorded battles found across Europe.

The movie portrays General George S. Patton as a hero who has his faults. General Patton as the movie portrays him is only a hero in his realm which is war. When General Patton is not in the feild commanding his army, his lack of political skill brings him trouble. He is shown as having problems with everyone from Presidents to fellow generals and enlisted men. General Patton on the field with his army was in his element and his men did not have any love for him, respected him, and did what many considered impossible for him.

Which brings me to the idea of a hero such as General Patton. The man is brilliant, talented, and a master at his craft which was war. What General Patton accomplished was heroism at its finest by America and its allies. General patton did what had to be done, and he did it as well or better than most other men alive. There may be some argument between the men of this caliber who marshaled WWII as to who was the best of the best, but none of them were there for reasons other than they earned the right to be there.

Any job is open to anyone who is willing to do it. For example, everyone has the opportunity to arrive at whatever station their personal drive propels them too. It is all a matter of how hard one is willing to work and how much one is willing to sacrifice for some elusive ever changing goal.

Unfortunately the more prestigious the position, or the more weight it carries, there are fewer possibilities that any one individual will hold such a position. For every one that makes it to that lofty perch, there are hundreds if not thousands who do not. For every General Pattton there are hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers. Individuals such as General Patton did not fall into their positions. They spent their lifetime getting ready for a chance at these positions.

We all have the opportunity to become bigger than life if we want it. For most of us the drive to make the sacrifices needed just for the opportunity are too great and it is a road most of choose not to go down. For those that do, they sacrifice most of everything we consider a normal part of day to day living.

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Female Heroes found masquerading in the school system!

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I am probably one of the few people you know who was put in the hall in Kindergarten. That is the present day version of time out. I continued refining my abilities though elementary school. By the time I hit junior high I was a master. In seventh grade, I was partially responsible for one of my teachers having a nervous breakdown. By eighth grade, I was a daily visitor to the Principals office forced to do math, and attitude adjustment, led by the Vice Principal – his nickname was mighty mouse, fwiw. By senior high, I had learned to stay below the radar screen. I was only in serious trouble once in tenth grade for splattering enamel paint across the school Principal’s white shirt and tie. I did not know he was behind me when I spun and flung the paint.

In my first year of college, I spent some time visiting with the Dean on a few occasions during the year. At the end of the spring semester, the Dean told me I was not welcomed back next year. I had my supporters though. There were people who were willing to pay my way through college if I would become a teacher, or social worker. I had enough experience watching me in action, to know I was not cut out for either career, even though they thought I would be perfect. So I turned them down.

Thinking about myself, reminded me there are two educator’s right in my own family. Female Heroes, and educational role models, both of them. I have just been oblivious to them! I want to talk about each of them in turn, as they both deserve a lot more than the few words I have for them.

One is a Principal of an Elementary School. She has worked very hard to achieve this life long dream of hers. She is a credit to her school system she is an integral part of. Her students are a mixed bunch, some of the parent(s) are struggling on many fronts. She manages to keep the school running, ensures her students get as much of what they need as she can from the system, and the community. Of course it is never enough, and there is never enough to really go around, but she manages to stretch what there is for as many of her students as she can. She is a great example of dedication, and love for her work. I hope she does not have students like I was, to contend with on top of everything else.

A second family member is a teacher’s assistant. In these times of no child left behind, she is one of the few who happily takes on the hardest kids of the bunch. She takes care of, and helps teach kids with serious learning, emotional, or psychological problems. Some of these kids have been learning their alphabets for a couple of years, and still have difficulty keeping the letters in order. Yet she loves her work! She does not even see it as a job, but something she looks forward to doing each day.

These are some real Female Heroes! I know every city, and many family’s have them, but we rarely celebrate them. Many teacher’s teaching today – if they didn’t have a burning passion for what they do each day – could double, or triple their salary in the private sector. Yet there they are, five days a week, making a difference! And they do not get extra pay when a student like I was comes along.

The next time you meet with a Teacher, think about what they are doing for you and your community. If you are like me, and you come up short in the comparison, let them know how special you think they are for what they do. Supporting your local school with time or supplies once in a while helps too.

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Female hero saves son, lifts truck while men watch!

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I never learned this woman’s name, and I never saw her before, or after, but what I did see her do was incredible! I do not think she could ever do it again. I doubt she even realized she was doing it as it happened. There were no pictures taken, it never made the paper, or the six o’clock news. For about thirty an unknown woman was a full fledged hero, and a life saver!

There was an accident at a corner close to where we were playing one afternoon. A boy was hit by a full size pickup truck. It was not a new compact, but a truck from the sixties when vehicle weight was not an issue. I did not see how the accident happened, but a boy was pinned under the truck, and in considerable pain.

From across the street, a woman showed up crying; she was the boy’s mother. She ran over to the truck and kneeled down on the blacktop and looked at her boy, pinned beneath the vehicle. She wanted to pull him out, but he was pinned, and it was not possible.

Without a seconds hesitation the woman stood up, and faced the front bumper of the truck. She bent down and reached under the bumper. She stood up, and the front of the truck lifted with her! She stood there looking almost calm holding the front end of this pick up truck in the air. She looked towards two men standing close to her and told them, “Pull my son out from under the truck.”

The men were frozen in place at the sight, but then sprung into action and pulled the boy from underneath the truck. When the boy was clear the woman lowered the truck. Minutes later an ambulance showed up. They inspected the boy, put him on a board, then on a cot, and into the ambulance. The woman climbed in, the door was closed and the ambulance left.

If anyone had told me this story, I would be hard pressed to believe it. An average five foot something woman lifting the front end of a pickup truck off the ground just isn’t done. Yet things like this are done all the time. People everywhere do things that require something they think they could not do, yet they do it anyway.

I do not think this woman would ever be able to lift a truck for anyone other than her own son. I also know for those few seconds she was a true hero! Beside the fact that it was her son, she acted without thinking for a second that she could not lift the truck one half inch, let alone almost six inches off the ground! It never entered her mind that she could be crippled in the attempt. She simply acted without thinking of herself.

While we may never have an opportunity to be a hero at that level, we all have chances to be heroes or heroines. Every time we are out in public, people are watching us, judging us, and rating us on their personal scale. It is these times where we can be heroic even if it is only a small amount of heroism we display. Give it a try tomorrow. Tell yourself before going to sleep tonight that you are going to actively look for an opportunity to do something good for someone. You will be surprised how many chances you have, and how easy it is. After a few times, you will know that it feels better being a small time hero, than pretending you do not see someone needing your help.

I never saw the boy or the woman again, it happened in my neighborhood, but they were not part of it. I would like to think that because of the woman, the boy was okay. I would also like to think the woman was okay, and did not hurt herself saving her son.

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Woman, politician, and role model too?

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I recently read, and heard on television about a woman in Los Angeles who is trying to do something very good for her community. She wants to halt the issuance of permits that would allow new fast-food restaurants in her local neighborhoods for at least two years. What an apparent waste of her time, or so it seems until you know a little more about the story.

Jan Perry is a Councilwoman who represents a South Los Angeles district. Areas in the district suffer from low wages, high unemployment, too few grocery stores, and too much fast-food according to what I have read on the net, and heard on television. In an area where CBS news correspondent Bill Whitaker visited, a comment was made, “…In an area where there are 40 fast food restaurants within a mile of where Whitaker visited and only one grocery store – the city council is taking a bold move – proposing a two year moratorium on all new fast food restaurants in south central – calling it “health zoning….” “

What a good thing for those areas, if they can change around the ratio of grocery stores to fast-food restaurants. I do not think that will be enough, though it is a great start. There will also need to be education put in place to help the people living in areas such as this understand about making better meal choices. It would not hurt for a program to go into effect for our whole country, as many parents today are second, or even third generation fast-food diners.

As much as I would like to rant on fast-food, and how it is making us sick, the real purpose of this blog entry is the work Councilwoman Perry is doing for her community, and indirectly the country. I am one of the least familiar with the biographies of public figures, but Councilwoman Perry sure sounds like a woman who is really working to make life better for her constituents.

While it is easy to present arguments against what Councilwoman Perry wants to do with fast food, she has done a lot for her community as her biography on her website reads, and she is trying to do even more if you read more of it. I think some minor and major politicians could learn from what Councilwoman Perry has done and is trying to do. I think Jan Perry is a role model for our country. It is too bad Jan Perry, and others working just as hard as she is to improve community life lose out to better selling news stories. We need to read and hear about people like Jan Perry, and what she is doing.

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