Monday, June 1, 2009

Childhood hero(ine)

The first person I remember looking up to wasn't real. As with most children, I had my pick of figments to admire. I picked She-ra.
Now laugh if you want, but I think it reflects well on me to have picked a strong female figure as my first hero (or heroine). Too often little girls want to be Barbie or Hannah Montana when they grow up. I wanted to kick some Evil Horde ass with my trusty side-kick Spirit and a cadre of pals, including Kowl...another favorite.

Heroes exist for a reason. We look up to them. We learn from them. We even emulate them (though I've stuck more to looking like Princess Adora than sporting a white mini skirt and knee high boots like She-ra). It's good to wish to be better than you are. That helps us strive to be better people, to try to better humanity.
An important thing to remember though, and one not realized by most children, is that its okay to fail. And that there are other ways to try to better humanity than to call on the power of Grayskull and wield a sword to fight the Evil Horde. Smiling at a stranger can be heroic. Letting someone get in front of you on the road can be heroic. Who knows what pain and disaster you may be averting by just taking a moment to call an old friend to say hi.
Yeah that's something we should all learn. With that in mind, tomorrow will be about a much more realistic hero.

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