"Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?
Where's the street wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?"
-- Bonnie Tyler, Holding Out For a Hero
Going cheesy old school with y'all on this quote today. But while sitting out in the sun reading, I came across this line in Stephen King's Dark Tower V (Wolves of the Calla): "Eddie thought that Calvin Tower was, in the words of the song, holding out for a hero." And something told me: Get up. Time to write.
So I came back outside with a spiral-bound, college-ruled notebook (what makes blue lines closer together on a white page "college-ruled" anyway?) and a brown Sharpie. And here we are.
I always thought this song was about a woman pining for the Ultimate Man. After all: "HE's gotta be strong; HE's gotta be fast; HE's gotta be fresh from the fight." She wants a savior, right?
No.
In fact, in the very beginning - the quote I opened with above - she doesn't ever even mention a real man. She mentions gods and mythological figures. White knight saviors and whatnot. A hero to save that doesn't really exist? Please.
She needs to be her own hero.
If you remember back, think of when the song is even played in "Footloose." Country boys playing chicken with tractors? Really? Hero much? No.
Now, there are heroes - every day heroes in our lives, like our firemen, policemen and military. There are heroes to our children, like the baseball stars who take the time to actually autograph the game ball and light up their faces. And there are heroes in our every day lives: those who take the time to wish us a good morning, or call us when they know we're having a bad day. Folks who bring you a cupcake for no reason, or take that extra shift from you at work when you really want to be with your family instead.
I think the "woman" in the song can't find her hero because she doesn't realize she's her own. And she doesn't realize she is also someone else's.
A woman at work and I were talking the other day about whether true altruism exists. Because, I do think most folks want to do good and make others happy. But do we not also want to see the results of our actions? To see their faces alight, to see their change in mood? Because it gives us pleasure to make others happy. And as it should. But are our actions altruistic if we also feel happy and good about ourselves by doing them?
If true altruism doesn't exist, I'm very okay with that. How is that a bad thing anyway? Because if an act of nicety - being someone's hero however small - results in not only one person being happy, but two? Well, then. Mission accomplished x 2.
Friends, I say go on out this week and be a hero to someone. Wait for that hero if you need it, but be one of your own in the meantime for someone else who needs it, too. In that way, you are your own hero. And more that amazing for it.
