Thursday, July 23, 2009

What do you do when your hero has more issues than you do?

I have heroes. Most people do. My heroes do not wear capes and fly around fighting crime. Most of my heroes write books. Literary Heroes, if you will.

One of my heroes is a lot like me. She is a couple of months older than me, and has been through a lot of the same things I have been, from life experiences to self image.

I have been fortunate enough to make contact with this person, and can read their personal thoughts. However, what do you do when your hero has way more issues than you ever thought about having? How can a person write a book on self image, and overcoming it, when they have not even come to terms with their own self image? It is confusing.

It does not, however, change my base opinion of her. She is a fantastic writer, hilarious and delightfully sarcastic in the same way I am, and I still greatly admire her. It just put a different spin on things when I learned that the person I looked up to was not quite the person I thought she was. I thought she was down to Earth and "real"...and after knowing what I know now, she is even more "real" to me, because she, just like almost every person in the world, has some sort of issue, some sort of fear, some sort of phobia or inner struggle, just like me. Just like you.

One of the personal definitions of hero for me is: A person who changes your life, for the better. A person who awakens something in you, and changes your whole outlook on things. These kind of heroes are very rare in my opinion, and I have been lucky enough to have been blessed with more than one.

The best part of my literary hero is that she did not allow world recognition to go to her head, and stayed true to herself, even when she is at odds with her self. She did not become fake, or begin to turn into someone she is not, and she readily admits most of her issues, and does not apologize for them. Some would call it "humble" but that is not quite the right word.

So keep in mind, while you are out there daydreaming about being Superman...that he had issues too. It is the never ending process of overcoming those issues to grow as a person is what makes them so awesome...
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1 comment:

The Computer Connoisseur said...

Heroes are so easy to look up to, we see something in them that we wish to be, but when we meet them, like you have, and find that they are just like us, it makes it all the more special to know that they are human too. I have not had the opportunity to meet any of my personal heroes, but I suspect if I did, I would hope to find they are just like her, a regular person who understands they have issues to overcome, and have not let fame turn them into something they are not. We should all be grateful to have people like her to look up to.

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