Conversations over Coffee

Conversations with My Hero

I’ll be honest with you, when I set this conversation topic I wasn’t quite sure what to write about. Often I set the topic and have a half sketched plan or post swirling around in my mind. This time, I thought the idea of writing about heroes was a good one, but that was all. No post or plan swirling around in my head.

The more I have thought about it the more I have come to realise that I don’t have any real heroes in my life. Yes, there are people that I love, people that I admire, people that I look up to and people who are inspirational and awesome. But none of these people I can call my hero.

My boys have a life full of heroes. The super heroes with capes that save the day and the soccer heroes that are almost god-like idols. For a good chunk of this year as their dad coached their junior soccer team, they thought that he was a hero as coach.

IMG_0487_wm

The more I gave this post thought the more I realised that I only really have influences in my life, fleeting things that inspire me or motivate me. But that fleeting inspiration or motivation is not what I can call a hero.

Then I got to thinking about the days when heroes did exist. Real heroes that saved the day, made the front page of newspapers, captivated the hearts of those who looked up to them. Martin Luther King, Weary Dunlop, Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Mandela are the first few to come to mind. They are people who did extraordinary things in an extraordinary time.

Now it seems that time is filled with noise, lots and lots of noise. It is a cacophony of noise that drowns out heroes and drowns out even the idea of a hero. The scrolling Instagram, Twitter, Facebook feeds and instantaneous moments of influence, of envy, of admiration, of inspiration. Our contact with the world is scrolling, fast and instantaneous that it almost leaves no room for something to grow and become long lasting, let alone warrant hero status.

When I typed the word ‘hero’ into Google a very interesting set of results came up: the first being session times for the movie Hero, the second a Wikipedia entry, another movie Hero entry, a YouTube entry and even an entry for Hero condoms. An entry from dictionary.com told me that a hero is ‘a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities’ which only further confirms to me that it seems our modern world is lost in the way of heroes. Simply the act of typing hero into Google told me that before any search results came up.

IMG_0492_wm

I’m not sure. Maybe this is one of those posts that will end with no real ending. Part of me feels somehow that my contact with the world is more of a distraction these days than anything else. Part of me feels that maybe I need to find the hero within myself before I can see it in others. Part of me feels that the world needs heroes now more than ever.

I’m happy for the jury to still be out on this one. For life and its lessons to keep weaving a path whereby maybe one day I can write this post with a more definitive answer and know the heroes in my life. Till then, tell me do you think the way is lost for heroes in today’s world? Or is it all simply a matter of perception?

 

Disclosure: when I asked my boys to gather up some heroes for mummy to use in her blog post, these are some of the figures they returned with 🙂

 

Conversations over Coffee returns Thursday October 29, 2015
Conversations with Writing my Story ~ everyone is welcome


© 2024 always josefa - designed by adelphimou