The Anti Heros and the Underdogs: Part One
HAVE you ever considered the makings of a hero? My generation has been bred on stories of heroes, specifically those of a certain caliber. The Anti- Hero or the Underdog being the chief examples. Why? because we want to relate to the hero, we want our weaknesses to be not only present but celebrated in our success. We want to be Jack Sparrow because he can be intoxicated yet admired for his wit. To be indulgent yet respected and favored by outlandish fortune which procures our freedom.
WE want to be Frodo Baggins having the whole of Middle Earth disbelieve in our abilities to do what we have committed to accomplish, yet to conquer their disbelief by its very origin, our insignificance. To prove that the world is full of fools who did not know our worth, and for them to bow down to us in awe.
WHY? Because we are afraid of being that other kind of Hero, the one the world expects something of and holds to a moral standard. We are afraid of failing, of succumbing to our pleasures, of the reality that we might be crushed by an enemy because we were not important enough to hold captive. We are afraid of the responsibility of being Captain America. This is so fixed in our fear that in our prism of pessimism we ask "What would happen if he was his opposite? If Steve Rogers hailed Hydra?" This is the same as asking "What if Dietrich Bonhoeffer replaced Herr Goebbels, or Eichmann?"
This is hearing the words of C.S. Lewis' demon "The great sinners and the great saints are made of the same stuff" and instead of receiving comfort that you could be a Saint Patrick, you trade your responsibility for a fantasy that Saint Patrick could be Mussolini. This mindset is in the race to admonish our complacency.
Instead of taking our past of indulgence and forsaking it for a greater cause, we want to go on being indulgent. Instead of seeking to better ourselves we'd rather be satisfied by our own abilities and not enter any kind of alteration. We want to manage our risks and avoid pain like the Philosophers of old. We won't defend anyone, we won't risk our necks for an experiment. The endurance of Steve Rogers to serve a people who rejected him countless times because he believes they ought to be defended and he must become what he can to defend them, is a lost virtue on this generation.
HOW did we lose it? one word got us there, Pride. If you take the great men I mentioned and consider their most indelible trait you are sure to find a binary Courage-humility complex that is ingrained down to the most unexpected knee-jerk reaction. St. Patrick, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Captain America, men of humble and unassuming courage.
Someone asked what the big deal was with Wonder Woman, my thoughts were for the first time we had a DC super hero origin story that didn't take 45 minutes to convince the hero she needed to be heroic. Her passion for justice and for Goodness prevented anyone from holding her back, her innocence (not naivety as someone called it) was her strength and her weakness when Justice and Goodness were climatically opposed to each other.
Again, Frodo Baggins you need community. You need others, if you had gone to Mount Doom on your own most certainly the quest would fail. Without Samwise, a Hobbit with the courage-humility complex, even if Frodo made it past Shelob he was seduced by the ring on the verge of its destruction, all is lost. When we function on pride we are lost, and the virtue of humility is lost on us.
Later Eowyn fights against the Witch King although she is a mere woman, slays him, and is injured, this lands her in the Tower of Healing and us into one of the most moving proposals of literature. Faramir loves the Shield Maiden, however she is in love with glory. Her pride makes her lovesick over the King Aragorn as it makes her lust the glories of battle and bloodshed. Faramir's rebuke sets her right and in humility her eyes are opened to her purpose in life, "then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed,and the sun shone on her...'behold! The shadow has departed! I shall be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great riders, nor take joy only in the song of slaying. I will be a healer and love all things that grow and are not barren.' and again she looked at Faramir's. 'No longer do I desire to be a Queen,' she said."
Better to be the humble sidekick than the underdog, better to hold your self to a high standard of virtue than to hope you will astonish others. Better to love life than to prove yourself in death. Be a martyr only when it is called for, be a servant at all hours.
WE want to be Frodo Baggins having the whole of Middle Earth disbelieve in our abilities to do what we have committed to accomplish, yet to conquer their disbelief by its very origin, our insignificance. To prove that the world is full of fools who did not know our worth, and for them to bow down to us in awe.
WHY? Because we are afraid of being that other kind of Hero, the one the world expects something of and holds to a moral standard. We are afraid of failing, of succumbing to our pleasures, of the reality that we might be crushed by an enemy because we were not important enough to hold captive. We are afraid of the responsibility of being Captain America. This is so fixed in our fear that in our prism of pessimism we ask "What would happen if he was his opposite? If Steve Rogers hailed Hydra?" This is the same as asking "What if Dietrich Bonhoeffer replaced Herr Goebbels, or Eichmann?"
This is hearing the words of C.S. Lewis' demon "The great sinners and the great saints are made of the same stuff" and instead of receiving comfort that you could be a Saint Patrick, you trade your responsibility for a fantasy that Saint Patrick could be Mussolini. This mindset is in the race to admonish our complacency.
Instead of taking our past of indulgence and forsaking it for a greater cause, we want to go on being indulgent. Instead of seeking to better ourselves we'd rather be satisfied by our own abilities and not enter any kind of alteration. We want to manage our risks and avoid pain like the Philosophers of old. We won't defend anyone, we won't risk our necks for an experiment. The endurance of Steve Rogers to serve a people who rejected him countless times because he believes they ought to be defended and he must become what he can to defend them, is a lost virtue on this generation.
HOW did we lose it? one word got us there, Pride. If you take the great men I mentioned and consider their most indelible trait you are sure to find a binary Courage-humility complex that is ingrained down to the most unexpected knee-jerk reaction. St. Patrick, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Captain America, men of humble and unassuming courage.
Someone asked what the big deal was with Wonder Woman, my thoughts were for the first time we had a DC super hero origin story that didn't take 45 minutes to convince the hero she needed to be heroic. Her passion for justice and for Goodness prevented anyone from holding her back, her innocence (not naivety as someone called it) was her strength and her weakness when Justice and Goodness were climatically opposed to each other.
Again, Frodo Baggins you need community. You need others, if you had gone to Mount Doom on your own most certainly the quest would fail. Without Samwise, a Hobbit with the courage-humility complex, even if Frodo made it past Shelob he was seduced by the ring on the verge of its destruction, all is lost. When we function on pride we are lost, and the virtue of humility is lost on us.
Later Eowyn fights against the Witch King although she is a mere woman, slays him, and is injured, this lands her in the Tower of Healing and us into one of the most moving proposals of literature. Faramir loves the Shield Maiden, however she is in love with glory. Her pride makes her lovesick over the King Aragorn as it makes her lust the glories of battle and bloodshed. Faramir's rebuke sets her right and in humility her eyes are opened to her purpose in life, "then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed,and the sun shone on her...'behold! The shadow has departed! I shall be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great riders, nor take joy only in the song of slaying. I will be a healer and love all things that grow and are not barren.' and again she looked at Faramir's. 'No longer do I desire to be a Queen,' she said."
Better to be the humble sidekick than the underdog, better to hold your self to a high standard of virtue than to hope you will astonish others. Better to love life than to prove yourself in death. Be a martyr only when it is called for, be a servant at all hours.
It is the last line, but it is truly my favorite. "Be a martyr only when it is called for, be a servant at all hours." Oh to learn that lesson. For me to see the heroism in Channah's First son, her second son, all the way to the youngest seventh son, is when this is called for and whisper into the ear of the youngest by his mother. Oh the agony mixed with enduring love. Looking forward to part II
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