“Heroism feels and never reasons and therefore is always right” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What separates a hero from the rest of the world?

Is it the ability to fly.. or have enough money to afford cool gadgets.. or maybe the mutant gene that he was born with that makes him more special than everyone else?

Epic Heroism

Even in these modern day comic book fantasies, these talents are nothing about heroism and does not separate a hero from an average individual. Bill Gates has more money than Bruce Wayne ever could, but you don’t see him jumping around in a bat suit with a cape. I don’t believe that anyone becomes a hero because of any extra gifts or talents.

There is no superhero gene or skill to learn.

It is actually quite the opposite. We, as average individuals, are more evolved than heroes, because we have a gift that these super-humans do not. We have the ability to think rationally, and would find a more rational alternative or justification than leaping from one skyscraper to the next.

The Mystery of Heroism is About Suspending Thought

I watched the new Batman movie a couple of weeks ago, and I was sitting on the edge of my seat for most of it. There was one scene where the joker threw a girl out of Bruce Wayne’s highrise. Batman didn’t stop to think about which funeral home could hold the right amount of grieving relatives. Instead, Batman dove out of the window after her. He didn’t have the stunt planned and it just so happened that he had a cool gadget that would save them in this scenario.

But the point is that cool talents or skills have nothing about heroism.

True epic heroism is made when one is able to suspend the natural human gift of rational thinking to rescue someone else at whatever cost.

Are you an entertainer, politician or a hero?

A Biased Survey

Several days ago I surveyed a few of my friends and family. It wasn’t a long survey. It actually consisted of one question.

“Why did you do that?”

I wanted to know what processes were going through their heads while choosing to make a decision in life. I didn’t take notes on their answers nor did they even realize they were participants in a survey. But I was quick to judge their answers and was biased towards my own thinking. In other words, the survey was completely unscientific.

but it did bring up good conversation.

Three Ways To Make Decisions

I also figured out that there are 3 types of people when it comes to decision-making.

1. Those Who Decide From their Mind – A Politician
2. Those Who Decide From their Heart – A Hero
3. Those Who Decide From their Emotions – An Entertainer

A politician is always successful, but is never loved. He carefully manipulates situations with his mind so that he will come out on top. You can never turn your back on him.

An entertainer is always loved but is never in control. Their decisions are always made by the outside influences surrounding them. They might be a flower floating downstream being led by the water’s current, but they still are always loved by everyone around them. They have an unmatched ability to connect with everyone around them, because their lives are guided by emotions.

A hero is hardly loved or successful. She makes decisions based on a larger idea of what is right. She will lose everything she owns because her heart pushes her to go for something more than herself. There is a greater good out there, and she strives for it everyday. In the simplest of choices, her will tugs on her and guides her to help out those around her. She might not be the richest nor the most popular..

but she is a hero.

Who are you?

Stay Tuned..

Next time at AltNoise I will be writing about why it is not always smart to be a hero. Make sure you are subscribed to the free feed so you don’t miss this exciting article.

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If you desire to try and make the world a better place, you will be left heartbroken.

I don’t know why I persistently preach that we can become a world of compassion and selfless sacrifice. It could never be true. It is a fight that one cannot win. There will always be someone taking advantage of us. There will always be someone that is out to hurt us…  There will always be that time when we are in it for ourselves.

The Smart Way

It is not a message of success nor genius. A smarter man would learn to play by the rules of the world. He would know the right moments to fake a smile and pretend to be compassionate. The smart man knows the time for good, but even more, he knows the time to push someone down. The end goal for him is to get to the top of the mountain and look down at all the people he had to step on to get there.

Even though I know I will never succeed in completely changing the world, I press on. Maybe I am ignorant. Maybe I am idealistic. Maybe I am dumb. But, I continue in my efforts.

The Difficulties of Idealism

It is hard. There are many times where I picture myself in a Rocky movie. I’m getting knocked down every round but I continue to get up. It is lonely. There are times when I get depressed because there are only a few people who agree with my thinking and the rest of the world could care less about me.

The question that I ask myself is why. Why do I persist for an idealistic but unreachable goal?

I have only one reason.

my two sons.

In all of the corruption and horrible experiences, God has given me the greatest gift I could have ever received. They are my hope that a new world can be born out of the harsh reality of life.

The Secret To Perseverence Is Inspiration

This is the secret to the persistence needed to continue in an idealistic dream. It is that ultimate inspirational blessing which God has graced upon our lives and influenced us in a more positive manner. I don’t believe the inspiration is the same for everyone nor will it come from something that we feel entitled too. It comes from the burnt ashes of our lives. In these most vulnerable and broken times, God decides to give us a gift; a gift we don’t feel worthy to receive.

This is why I am pushing for an alternate noise.

Last week, I was traveling in a large 15 passenger van packed with college students. We were driving back home to Orlando from a convention in Atlanta.

It was a long drive.

We talked about everything from the genius in classic Will Farrell movies and albums like Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory to the problems with the labels of modern and postmodern culture. They reminded me of how obnoxious naive I was at 19-20. They reminded me of how classic I had gotten as I remember Zoolander being an above average film not a great one.

To say the least, It was a long drive.

What should we do with our lives?

There was one spot where the conversation got really interesting. They began to talk about their careers, futures, and purpose in life. They wanted to know how to play the game of life. It was inspiring to hear about all the things that they would like to accomplish and take part in, but a few of them were completely confused about who they wanted to be.

They wanted to know their purpose..

its funny how we would like for God to work in our modern economic systems.

Stephen you should be a circus clown – God

What if we are looking at it the wrong way? We want to ask, “What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” or “What do I want to do with my life?”, but this is the wrong question to ask. If we ask these questions then we will never get anywhere.

We all want to be an artist.

We all want to be a millionaire.

We all want to be the president of a trash bag company.

But not everyone can.

Find Your Purpose In Community

The real question to ask yourself is what can you do right now for the world? In blogger lingo, we call this our niche. In life lingo, we should call this our purpose. Our communities have needs and they are looking for you to help them. It could be developing programs for at-risk kids, financial planning for young families, or writing inspiring songs for frustrated adults.

The key is to look at your skill sets, hobbies, life background and environment that you belong to. Is there somewhere you can go tomorrow and say, “I can help you with that”? It might not be your dream job. You might not even be paid for it, but dream jobs have to start out with simple servanthood.  If you want to play the game of life then you need to look at who you can serve today.

Welcome to the first edition of tales of everyday inspiration.

I have been inserting my articles into several blog carnivals and thought it would be good for me to add one to Altnoise.

Many of you might want to ask, “What is a blog carnival?” In simple terms, it is a collection of articles from several different blogs that all have the same theme. They are arranged together so that it is easier for a reader to find similar blogs.

an online magazine of sorts.

 This carnival is about personal stories of inspiration – hence the title, “Tales of Everyday Inspiration”. There were dozens of submissions and many of them very excellent articles. A few of them I had a hard time weeding out, but they didn’t fit the theme.

Every article you find here is based on someone’s personal experience and something that they’ve learned from it. There are four entries this time and I carefully read through them all. You will find something useful in them.

Inspiration Stories

Christine presents Film vs TV, Why We Opted to Turn the TV Off, plus Frugal Tips for Movie Buffs posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France, saying, “Cheap ways to see great films!”

:: Suzanne :: presents thanks giving posted at :: adventures in daily living ::.

Missy presents Symbols of the Holiday Known as Christmas posted at Observations from Missy’s Window, saying, “No symbol can take the place of what Christ means to us.”

Edith presents What would you ask for? posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act.. 

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tales of everyday inspiration using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Let me know what you think of the carnival. If it is successful I have a couple of other ideas for some.

This morning I was tempted. I missed the first class of the day because I was trying to finish the homework. It didn’t seem like it would be hard to finish so instead of doing it last night, I put it off until this morning. I had more.. important.. things to do.

 The morning started out great. I got up early, took a shower, got the boys dressed and had plenty of time to do the simple homework. I found it wasn’t so simple. An hour after the class started I was still trying to finish the first part.

It would’ve been easy to come up with an excuse for my missed class. I have two boys. Our cash is low. I have family and friends issues. I have a very creative mind and a great ability to come up with a good story. It has always been the extra juke that I could use when I would get into trouble. A quick lie can make the day much simpler.

It has come to the point where I rely on the lie before I even get started on the task. Much like an agile running back overly relying on his quickness, I half-ass things in the beginning because I know I’ll have a good story in my back pocket. I don’t have to change, but I have not grown in many aspects.

It is much harder for a running back to run straight forward then right to left. He gets punished in the beginning and bloodied from the hits when simply running north. This is the same with the truth. It just fucking hurts to tell the truth. We might get torn to shreds or those who care about us might take the force of the blow. Eventually, by the fourth quarter, the running back has worn down the defense and learned a good timing against it. He has turned those 1-2 yards a play into 4-5 yards.

At first, the truth is difficult. We might have the ability to go left and right, but alot of times we’ll go down before we can make it back to where we started. When we decide to stay in the truth, we’ll learn from our mistakes and grow as an individual. Today, when I see my professor, I’ll simply own up to my mistake and realize I need to plan a little better.