Heroic Question

[Hero - I]

Hero comes from the the Greek word heros, meaning protector or defender. A hero can be a real person from history, as in Joan of Arch, who was a French hero during the Hundred Year War. A hero can also be can be a mythological character like Gilgamesh. And then, of course, there are superheroes that wear masks and have superpowers.

What interests me most is not the specific hero figures—though I am partial to historical heroes like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.—but the archetype that is a hero. Hero is the title we give a person or figure, but it also names something else. It’s something bigger and more pervasive but at the same time more basic. Hero names the resistance we all have to the villain, the antagonist, Evil, and darkness. As an archetype, it is universal, the basic components of which are found through human cultures across time.

Hero names a journey (as in the Hero’s Journey), a motive (as in Honor or Chivalry), an ethic (as in Justice or Welfare), and purpose (as in the Common Good).

Of course the specific definitions of hero have changed slightly over time, the latest iteration meaning something like supernatural powers to defend against slightly lesser supernatural villainous forces. (Thank you, Marvel.)

However, if we step away from Hollywood and look at heroes across time, we see you don’t need to fly to be a hero. You don’t need to slay dragons or topple armies or rescue the damsel in distress. Most fundamental to the hero is a commitment to protect the vulnerable.

The hero asks the question the villain never does: Are the vulnerable okay?
Are we asking that question?