One memorable quote from the first Spiderman movie reads as follows, "The only thing they like to see more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying."
Is that true? Do we love to see a hero fall and if we do, why is that?
I don't love to see a hero fall. Not in the slightest. When I heard about Lance Armstrong's cheating I took off my Livestrong band and haven't worn it since. Not because I was glad to see him come crumbling down or because I don't think he is a great athlete, but because I lost the admiration I had previously held and because the band didn't mean what it once meant. They can strip Lance Armstong of his Tour de France victories and any other titles he won. They can't take away the fact that he beat cancer, or the fact that the Livestrong foundation has been empowering those with cancer for over a decade.
Now, a little over 6 months after the end of the Olympic Games in London, a hero of the games, Oscar Pistorius, could be the next hero to fall. News broke this morning that South African police were called to Pistorius's house and upon arrival found his girlfriend with gunshot wounds. That woman would die because of the injuries. Right now the only suspect is Mr. Pistorius.
I don't want this to be true. I don't want a national hero and symbol of perseverance to be vilified and thrown in prison. It doesn't matter what I want, though, because justice will prevail just as it should. If Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend he deserves to go to jail for it.
You see, the problem with heroes is something universal. It doesn't matter whether that hero is an athlete, a police officer, an armed service member, or a family member; at the end of they day they are all the same. They are humans.
When you make a human being a hero you hold them to a higher standard. Higher standards mean longer falls.
Whenever a police officer snaps and kicks a fugitive the public wants them to burn. When an athlete tests positive for PEDs they're supposed to live with an asterisk next to their name. An armed service member can be marred by a dishonorable discharge for a slip up.
They're no different than any other person. They are made of the same biological make-up as the rest of us. Yet we vilify these people when we're no better. We lie, we cheat, and we steal.
We hold them to a higher standard because...well because we need to have faith in someone. We aren't going to put our faith in the crack head on the side of the street and we aren't going to cry for his head when he gets high. The truth of the matter is that the crack head had a worse fall from glory than the athlete did. The athlete built him or herself up and fell back down to "our level" whereas the crack head fell from his original grace as a person into a life of addiction.
I don't want to see any heroes fall. I would much rather see an average person rise.
But heroes will continue to fall as long as humans continue to be imperfect.
It won't stop because imperfection is a part of life.
If you don't want to see a hero fall then be your own hero. You control whether or not you fall.
Be your hero and don't allow yourself to fall.
NP: Have Faith In Me- A Day To Remember
No comments:
Post a Comment