To Be The Hero

Ask any of my close friends or family, and they’ll tell you that I have a bit of a hero complex. That’s not to say that I walk around wearing tights or have a flowing cape draped around my neck, but I do have a hero complex. When I was very young (2 or 3), my mother bought me a set of superman pajamas. Now, to a normal kid, this might seem REALLY cool! But to me, it was so much more than that. In my mind, I was now Superman. I refused to take it off most days, and I would walk around the house, looking all tough and watching for any form of danger or evil that might lurk into my house. It reached the point where anyone who would call me by my name would get the response of “I’m not Adam. I’m SUPERMAN!” (Yes, I actually have numerous video recordings of this from when I was a child)

After a time, that wore off and I realized that wearing a costume all the time wasn’t normal. This realization, however, didn’t change my thoughts on being a hero. In one way or another, I have always tried to be the hero. From getting in a fight when I was in 3rd grade against a bully who was mocking my friend, to standing up to the mean teacher in 7th grade who would grade the boys harder because she was obviously sexist, my youth was full of me trying to be the hero. Even the jobs I chose as I grew were affected by this mindset. I have been a life guard, a camp counselor, a home medical aid, and now am a Youth Pastor. All of these jobs, in one way or another, feed into my need to try to be the hero. I can’t say if this is an entirely healthy mindset, but I’ll admit that it is the mindset I have.

What does this have to do with writing, you might ask? Well, like all other people, how my mind works is where my interests lie, and that affects what I write about. All of my stories I write tend to feed into this hero complex I have, and I believe it makes me a better writer because of it. It’s not that I have an unrealistic view of what a person can and should do, but I believe that to be a true hero, one must put others before oneself, as well as being brave. History is full of stories of heroes, and I believe that is because all of us, on one level or another, crave heroism. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I crave to BE that hero, not to see one. I crave to be the one that has to sacrifice, to fight, and to push away fear and do what needs to be done. This is partially a selfish thought, because there is a level of pride in being the hero, but to me it’s more than that. It’s the thought that in being the hero, others don’t have to suffer, and they can live a happy life due to the actions I’ve done. This is the reason I write. It is because, with all the things in my life, there is still that draw to be the ultimate hero. To give up my life for another. To protect, and to inspire. Few things in life are more inspiring than a true hero in a compelling story, and that is something that is often on my mind.

Now, I am a Christian, and while I don’t feel the need to preach to people constantly about it, I will say that it very much defines my life and the actions I take in it. The Bible tells us that we are to put people before us, to love our neighbors, and to even love our enemies. In my view, a person who can love their enemies, and choose good for people, instead of the bad thoughts and actions that so many spit out into the world, is the ultimate hero. Heroism isn’t about action so much as it is about a mindset, and the person you are inside.

So my question to you is, how do you feel about heroism, and what causes a person to be heroic?

Adam