December 16, 2007

• Somebody give them a Thesaurus

  Dictionary.com defines Hero as “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.”

  I was reading the paper this morning and saw an article about a  child who was born in India with 4 arms and 4 legs. She was born joined at the pelvis to a “parasitic twin” that stopped developing in her mother’s womb. The doctors were able to remove the extra limbs and organs and did the required surgery to make her body normal.

  Great story, I thought, until I got to this part of the story…. ”Lakshmi is a hero,” her doctor said. A Hero? By the definition that she was born deformed and survived a surgery to correct that deformity? I don’t think so. Perhaps he meant to say that she was a brave little girl to go through all that, if she indeed was brave about it. But not a hero.

  Years ago when I was little, a hero was really someone who put their life on the line to save someone else. A soldier, a  fireman, a policeman. Everyday people can be heros, too, when they do something heroic. What about the unemployed guy in NY city a couple if years ago who threw himself under a subway train to save a disabled man who had fallen? Now THAT is a hero.

  There are many words you can use to honor a person…..an inspiration, a role model, maybe even a champion. But let’s save the hero title for what it’s meant for while it still has a definite meaning. Before long it will be like ‘awesome’ which, now only seems to mean the same thing as ‘pretty cool’.

  “We can’t all be heros because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”   Will Rogers

  • 12:25 pm
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