Mystery of Heroism: What a Hero is About.

“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.