The Hero In Me

 

THE HERO IN ME

by

Anthonystjoseph

     Recently, in a conversation with an acquaintance, I mentioned the detest I had for a family member who always made himself the hero of every story he told.  Said acquaintance looked at me with a mischievous smile and said, “Sounds like someone else I know”.  I immediately smiled, knowing her joke was on me because to some readers of my stories I could easily seem like a hero.  This casual communication on the topic of self-proclaimed heroes has driven me to a lot of thought on the topic.

     I must tell you that I did tell my friend in a louder than normal tone, “I am not the hero of all my stories; I might be the winner, but I am not the hero”.  

     I guess to the world I may be a ‘hero’ in a lot of my stories and in the end I may seem like a hero but believe you me, I don’t feel like a hero.  Due to this conversation I have thought about the oft times that I have been no hero at all.  The times when I roamed the lands as a fourteen year old boy let loose with a pellet gun and wreaked havoc on several bird populations.  The non-heroic times when my cowardice has gotten the best of me and I have taken the easy roads out of certain situations…  The life changing events that have found my soul down in the dirt with stains that only some kind of ethereal God could wash off if he or she chose too.  No, I have several moments and actions in my life that are non-heroic but I think in truth, I have actually handled them and am handling them all quite heroically.  I guess in fact, I am a hero…

     The recognition that one is perceived and may be a hero, I imagine, is a shock to all who are considered heroes.  In my opinion a true hero does not feel like a hero at all.  Can you imagine the cross a hero has to bare throughout his or her lifetime knowing he was a hero?  I believe a true hero bares the cross of righteousness and honor and always tries to display and live those values throughout their life and are eventually viewed as heroes in maintaining those values.  I believe a true hero carries shame and disgrace through their whole lives when they fail those honorable values that they deeply believe in and try to uphold. 

     A true hero does not feel like a hero but instead they are viewed as heroes because of their constant strive to take the heroic road less traveled.

     Oh wow!  Do you see what I did here?  I became the ‘hero’ of this piece thereby proving my acquaintances point of view of becoming the hero of ‘most’ of my pieces…  I KNOW she said ‘all’.  When my book comes out you will see several non-heroic moments where you yourself will say, “That boy ain’t no hero!”  But when you finish my book you will say, “He handled that life so heroically”.  I DID it AGAIN!

By

Anthonystjoseph

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