Posted by DogMattic at ool-18bd5c37.dyn.optonline.net on November 14, 2002 at 16:45:08:
Sorry for reposting it but I JUST posted this on the last board before it got turned over and it's probably gonna get all lost and stuff, so...
This is something I had to write up for school, figured I'd post it and see what you guys think.
What is a hero? To answer this question two different elements must be explored: group perception and individual interpretation. Both of these connotations vary, from group to group and individual to individual.
To determine group perceptions, first the group in question must be decided. Young kids see heroes as both fictional superheroes and older relatives, perhaps siblings, while older kids and young adults often find heroes in historical figures, newsworthy figures, and again, friends and family. Older adults and senior citizens also commonly recognize heroic qualities in family, friends, veterans, and newsworthy figures. If these perceptions were all correct it would mean heroes are grown men in colorful capes(homosexual activists), old people with wooden teeth and bad wigs and women who refuse to sit on a bus(historical figures), it would mean heroes are your great uncle Wolfgang Amadeus Philbert who rode around on a pony and sold aqua-marine bowties during the great depression and your crazy great aunt Henrietta who collected cowboy trading cards and thought himilayan ninjas were coming to steal her treasure chest, packed to the brim with pirate plunder and booty(relatives).
Individual interpretations are even more diverse than those of groups. Individual interpretations cannot all be explained as they differ person to person. While I may see a hero as an inhibited activist or brave police officer, Robert "Pedro" Migliore sees a hero as Hector "Samba" Sanchez who invented the taco, the nacho, the gordita, the burrito, salsa, the pita, shoelaces, and over 19 other mexican delicacies. Individual interpretations are clearly as different as up and down, but as important to the definition of a hero as ham and provolone, both are key ingredients in the (non)figuritive hero sandwich.
The answer to the question presented at the beginning of this essay is everything and nothing. A hero is what you think it is, and what the person next to you thinks it is. A hero is what you and your friends think it is and what your and your friends parents think it is. While there are common qualities in a hero, bravery, heartiness, courage, zestiness, selflesness, an intangible spice, perceptiveness, tomatoes, determination, and mayonaise. Heroes are every day people and works of fiction, humans and delicous deli products. A hero is what you think it is and what I think it is, whether that be a veteran, a policeman, a father, a daughter, a teacher, or a great after-school snack. Next time you are unsure of what a hero truly is, just look inside your head, inside your friend's head, inside all your friends' heads, or if you really, truly believe, look deep, deep inside of the heart of your grocer's freezer. Maybe, just maybe, if you really, truly believe, and you have $1.29, you too might find a hero inside of you.