Heroes vs. Idols

I feel like I did not convince you all the last time so I will reopen my comments with my points from "A Wing and A Prayer."

I may be using the wrong terms, but I feel that there are those individuals who embody the values of a community rather than support the values of one person.

For instance, I idolize my dad, but I would not consider him a hero, at least not as I would understand the term.

A better representation would be someone like Superman. He represents America, he even says that fights for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way." He's probably even a bad example.

A better example would be the saints of the Catholic Church. They are supposed to embody the values of Church. They have their stories of lore - namely the miracles and the good deeds they have done. The stories may not be accurate, but they offer Catholics a good template for how to be good Catholics. I try to pattern my life as St. Ignatius of Loyola because I believe it helps me understand how to fall in line with the values and ethics of the Catholic Church.

Another example would be George Washington - the classic defender of democracy. Some of his life is fact, other was myth, however, you cannot deny that he embodied the virtues of our American Democracy.

The last example for me would be Vince Lombardi. If you had to put a face to the Green Bay Packers, then it would have to be Lombardi – a man who also seem to embody the virtues of the Packers – hard working, intelligent, etc.

I bring this up because I think we have dismantled our heroes. I think we want to think of people as mere men or women rather than legends. We leave heroes to children for the most part and believe once we come of age that it is foolish to believe that these people were anything else except a man or a woman. I will go as far as to say this has occurred with a lack of good storytelling. All of our movie star heroes lead meaningless existences. They have no connections to any of my institutions and they certainly do not help me understand my world. The heroes of today lead perilous lives either being spies, getting treasures, or kicking butt, but at the end of the day they don’t explain anything, they just entertain.

Don’t we need storytelling again? I think story time is not just for small children, but it is something sorely missing from our existence. As I heard on the BBC, stories should help us describe something that we can’t explain with plain words. I can’t believe we can explain everything in our existence. I know I can’t. Food for thought.

This may seem strange and geeky, but if I had to name my favorite superhero it would be Captain Planet because he embodied a new America that would battle the problems of industrialization. For my purposes, he replaces Superman in that way.