What is a Hero

The recent news of the Americans who thwarted the terrorism attack on a French train has prompted me to think of heroism lately. I wholeheartedly agree, this was a tragedy averted.

It got me thinking about what is a hero.

When first thinking of a hero, Superman or Batman comes to mind at first. They larger than life and do stupendous things that are beyond the strength of an ordinary person.

After I graduated from high school I was asked to provide input on a planned symposium/workshop on heroism. I wouldn’t be around to participate but I was happy to provide my thoughts. When we talked about who was a hero I was surprised at the names that came up, some were famous, some were not. But clearly those names that were surfaced were thought to be a hero in one way or another.

My old office had a mouse problem, they would run between the cube walls and one was so audacious it would rush out into the common area. Whenever the mouse would be audacious enough to make an appearance near my cube I would scream and jump on my desk. I think my coworkers were quite entertained, every time I screamed heads would pop over the cube like whack-a-mole. I almost gave my poor cubemate, Tom, a heart attack with all of my shrieking. One night he went to Home Depot and got some mouse traps. He baited them and set them near the area where the mouse was seen. I think that day I sat with my feet off the ground the entire time. In the afternoon we heard a SNAP and the mouse was caught and disposed of. No more mouse, no more screaming.

Tom has sadly passed away since then, but Tom was my hero that day.