Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00214)

Hi Jerry,

Yes, you could say we live in cynical times. Perhaps if we didn't 
call it "hero," which has a connotation of someone almost superhuman, 
someone we look up to, but rather stressed the idea of becoming 
conscious of the qualities in others, those fallible people in our 
daily lives, who possess some quality we admire. Our cultural love 
affair with the media, with entertainment, has sort of provided the 
impossible definition of "hero," Superman, Batman, etc (interesting 
how little children love that stuff, and how we all kind of long to 
love it--hearkens back to the Gods on Olympus or something maybe) and 
that very overstatement makes the word, the concept, a parody of 
itself. Still, I think we do look up to certain public figures. 
Perhaps what is happening is that the old concept of "god," the 
original superhero, is morphing into a more inclusive awareness of 
the divinity in everyone. 

Adelasie

On 16 Nov 2004 at 10:50, Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:

> 
> Hello Adelasia,
> 
> There was a time when "the hero" filled that function of teacher and
> exemplar. The hero was the person who demonstrated excellence in some
> area and modeled one or more virtues. When I first started teaching
> college composition courses, I had a list of questions for students to
> respond. Among them was "who is your hero and why?" I found out
> quickly that, except for an occasional essay about the student's
> mother or father, most would answer that they don't have a hero. They
> would explain that whenever someone is offered as a hero, within a
> short time, some scandal about them hits the news and exposes them for
> what they are. I think it a sad commentary about our times.
> 
> --j
> 
> 
>