Where Are the Heroes?
They Are All Around
I’ve had heroes who have stayed with me through much of my life and it didn’t really matter if I was able to mirror those heroes, the point was I had them and I wonder if today’s ruling generation, whatever they are called, have heroes and if not, I feel sorry for them.
I fear that the tide has turned so much toward cynicism and self-promotion that not only is it considered unfashionable to have heroes but even those with heroes are ridiculed as being hopelessly dated and out of touch. Maybe it’s harder to find heroes because all the darkness is quickly flashed around the Internet world and even if a potential hero doesn’t have huge skeletons around, the Internet will create them.
Heroes are so important because they inspire, offer dreams, maybe even perceived perfection, something to shoot for whether it’s way too far away to ever attain or maybe not. They simply tell you that there is greatness out there, something beyond the daily humdrum and you can maybe grab a piece of it and maybe one day be someone’s hero. Without heroes, you can’t begin to know about perfection.
My heroes were people who had feet of clay, I understand that, I accept that, but it didn’t change how I felt about them at the time. In Mickey Mantle, I saw a superior man child, one who excelled far and away beyond most others in a profession that I also enjoyed, though not quite to the success of Mickey Mantle. When he socked one 460 feet away, I was somehow right there with him. I know now that he was a raging alcoholic and womanizer and that he treated his wife and children very badly. So, no, I wouldn’t idolize and deify him now but I did when I was younger and it felt so good to believe there were people out there who actually captured and achieved their dream.
Or Woodward and Bernstein, two reporters who became legendary for their skillful persistence, doggedness and I would say, their strong belief in fairness and honesty, qualities that seem almost alien today, but back then, I saw two young reporters who didn’t quit, who saw an opportunity or rather, many opportunities, and seized on them like a snarling beast seizes on raw meat. They had heroic qualities and I so admired them that I have tried to model myself after them, granted, in a much smaller, less impactful degree but that’s not the point, the point is that I saw something bigger than myself, something that seemed to make sense in a grand, heroic way.
Or going back to my childhood, I had a neighbor, Mac, who was an ex-sailor who served in World War II. A gruff man, he seemed to have no pretensions, he was the stereotypical what you see is what you get kind of guy. He stepped up big time after my father died, acting as something of a surrogate father in that he was someone I could look up to and admire in the absence of my dad. He did small things that amazed me, like after finishing one of his Camels, he dumped out the remaining tobacco and rolled up the paper into a tiny ball before tossing it, making him a very early proponent of environmental protection although he would shiver if he was every accused of being anything other than what he was, a tough guy who drove a truck. Of course, in later years, after Mac died, I learned that he may have physically abused his wife and his son who had severe cerebral palsy. But learning this sordid side of Mac didn’t change how I saw him because when my attraction to him was growing, I didn’t know about his faults and I didn’t want to know.
In my 20s, I began a lifelong fascination and devotion to Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Marlon Brando, three rebels who symbolized a commitment to values that were the holy grail in my life, values like standing up to the powerful, speaking honestly, never backing off certain ethical standards and of course, they were three artists of the highest caliber. They showed me how to do it. I didn’t want to be a folksinger like Woody or Bob or an actor like Marlon (we are on a first name basis), but I did want to emulate their character and weave it into my own direction in life.
I didn’t know at the time, that Dylan was a womanizer who may or may not have beaten his first wife, Sarah; or that Woody was away from his family so much that his presence was more of a sad memory than a reality; or that Brando had 700 children, 400 wives and girlfriends, etc., etc. It didn’t matter then because I didn’t know about their faults and it doesn’t matter now because nothing changes about the qualities that I sought to make my own.
I haven’t had a new hero in many, many years and I don’t know if that’s because my early heroes were enough to carry me through of if as I get older I can’t lionize people because of all that I have learned in life or maybe I’m just a cranky, getting old man.
Are there Mickey Mantles, Woodwards and Bernsteins, Woody Guthries, Bob Dylans, Marlon Brandos and Macs in the lives of today’s younger generation or are they so jaded and victimized by a brutal culture that is unforgiving about diversity and blind to understanding different points of view. I don’t know if the current generation even knows what a hero is or if there are many people out there that are worth emulating. I would say there are still many heroes among us, people like Greta Thunberg, Aaron Judge or Stephen King, maybe that neighbor who may not be famous but is nonetheless a hero.
To be totally honest, I have no idea who are today’s potential heroes but Observer.com came up with 20 people, who are not household names but who give millenials a good name. Here they are and you or a millenial you know can easily Google them for more information.
Jennifer Hudson, Aziz Ansari, Orlando Bloom, Ronan Farrow, Antonio Ruiz-Giménez Jr., Michele Pollack, Prabal Gurung, Lauren Bush Lauren, Amanda Hearst, Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez,Joseph “J.J.” Johnson, Robin Lord Taylor, Meika Hollender, Aria Finger, Nicole Russell, Tammy Tibbetts, Brandon Marshall, Shane Snow, Eboni Marshall Turman and Slava Rubin
On second thought, I do have two heroes, my son and my daughter and for that I am pretty, darn lucky, wouldn’t you say.