True Heroes 9-16-10

Anderson, South Carolina

The individuals a culture holds near and dear; those placed on pedestals of reverence, are suggestive of traits of character highly valued by the larger collective. An objective look at modern day heroes is sobering, to say the least. Last year a Japanese man known as Sal9000 legally married Nene Anegasaki, a popular cartoon character in a video game “Love Plus”, played on Nintendo DS gaming console. Sixty people showed up to witness this man do something I cannot quite conceptually wrap my head around. Sal9000 admits to be an "otaku," a breed of Japanese youth obsessed with video games, computers and fantasy worlds.

Spectator sports and Hollywood have become the primary source of American heroes in recent decades. Actors receive inconceivable compensation for their efforts. Some actors have standard performance fees of $20 million. Others have figured they will gain even more for taking ‘back-end’ profits rather than up-front fees; boosting compensation to $30 million or more in some cases. In his role as a mascara-challenged pirate, Johnny Depp has generated about $2.2 billion at the box office for his last three films; an astronomical return on his $20 million actor salary.

Alex Rodriguez catches and throws baseballs for the New York Yankees as a third baseman. His most recent negotiations netted him a $252 million contract. Some pitchers earn five figures for each baseball they throw to home plate. David Beckham was enticed to run around on an LA Galaxy soccer pitch for $50 million per year. The accumulated annual purse for horse racing in America exceeds a billon dollars. A high-profile golfer caught up in moral controversy has a net worth exceeding a billion dollars, just for pounding little white balls into holes in the ground. News outlets around the world could not let go of the story. Does it take heroic strength of character to do what one loves to do and is good at; to be paid untold millions to do it, to the accolades of millions of adoring fans? Does it take heroic strength of character to commit moral turpitude?

Horatio Alger gained legendary status as an author who promoted the idea that one could go from rags to riches by doing plain old hard work, consistently. Hard work was the way out of poverty. Alger captured the mythology of the American dream in his captivating writings. John Avildsen’s film “Rocky” became the largest grossing film of 1976, featuring Sylvester Stallone as an uneducated debt collector for a Philadelphia loan shark who had a meteoric rise to prominence by good fortune and impossibly hard work. With great commitment he is able to train and go the distance against the reigning world heavyweight champion. At the final bell the fighters are locked in each other arms, the defending champion declaring, “Ain't gonna be no re-match.” Stallone’s “Italian Stallion” was like many Horatio Alger characters, proving commitment and hard work could accomplish the seemingly impossible. Does it take heroic strength of character to stretch beyond one’s known limits?

Simply living a day is hard heroic work for some people. Gracie Rosenberger is a name little known to the larger world. To those calling her friend or family she is truly a legend in her own time. Suffering through a catastrophic auto accident at age seventeen, she’s endured no less that seventy-five major surgeries, including multiple amputations of her limbs. She has lived a life in constant severe pain, yet has managed to marry well, mother fine children, and carry on with a successful singing career. Even more astounding is her commitment to travelling to Africa and overseeing efforts to fit artificial limbs on those ravaged by war – despite having lost her own limbs decades earlier. Does it take heroic strength of character to go beyond one’s own pain and loss so that others on the far side of the world can simply walk to school?

One recent Saturday while driving to meet others for a hike in the mountains I saw a jogger off in the distance with a rather strange gait. Coming closer to him I saw he had but one leg and an adapted prosthesis with a spring leaf in place of any kind of foot. I was mesmerized by his commitment to his own mobility and athletic accomplishment. The look in his face as he ran down the side of the state highway reminded me of the exultant look in Sylvester Stallone’s face, when he reached important milestones in his training. For certain he was moving faster than I ever could on two ‘good’ legs. I was quite enthralled and inspired by this heroic overcoming of life’s misfortunes.

Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, died at age 98 on May 12, 2008. Fox News did not break into regular programming to tell us. During WWII, Irena got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto as a Nurse; with an 'ulterior motive'. Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried in the back of her truck. She had a dog in the back she trained to bark when Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog; the barking covered noises made by the infants and small children. During her time doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 of them. She was caught. The Nazi's broke both her legs and arms and beat her severely. She escaped execution only by others bribing Nazi soldiers.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard; to reunite them with families after the war. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and not selected. An American politician received the Peace Prize for putting together a PowerPoint show based on the work of others. In July 2010, the words 'Jews out' were sprayed on her grave. Does it take heroic strength of character to assume the gravest possible risks to enable the reviled and persecuted to have a chance at life?

Baseballs or babies? You decide.