Hero’s All.

Some years ago I was out walking in Spain. I passed a flower very similar to the one I have tried to paint, it was growing up a telegraph pole. Each day as I passed I saw these flowers and were captivated by their beauty. Wrongly, I was determined to try and cultivate this flower back at home. 

I took a tender cutting collected some of the earth from around the bottom of the pole cut a plastic lemonade bottle in half to us as a pot. On the long journey home I took great care of this little plant watering and feeding it. It arrived back in Scotland still alive. I selected a place in the garden and carefully planted it. With my help, it clung on to life all summer and even grew some new leaves. At the end of the summer, it seemed to die off but this was what was to be expected. Over the winter I gave the roots some protection and in the spring it began to grow again. That first year all I got were leaves but I still had much hope. The following year I sprouted again and produced flowers, white ones like those that grew in wayside patches all over Scotland. My little hero had let me down.

I had expended much effort to little avail. I moved house and never found out what happened to my little flower.

We so often put a great deal of trust and energy into things with a heart filled with hope only to be let down.

I remember my first ever human hero. A man of talent as a jazz musician. I bought his records and had a signed photograph of him. I looked up to him in so many ways only to learn later that he was a man with feet of clay and some very human addictions. I felt so let down I vowed never to hero worship anybody again.

Emmerson the well-known philosopher once said of heroes, "A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. "

Researchers in the USA asked 2000 American eighth-grade students to name prominent people they admired and wanted to be like.

Those most frequently mentioned by the teens as their heroes were celebrities from the silver screen and the world of American football.

Commenting on this, columnist Sidney J. Harris lamented the fact that every one of the 30 prominent personalities who was named was either an entertainer or an athlete. 

He noted that statesmen, authors, painters, musicians, architects, doctors, and philosophers failed to capture the imagination of those students. He further suggested that the heroes and heroines created by our society are people who have made it big, but not necessarily people who have done big things. 

At this present time, it seems that nothing much has changed. With the world cup in full swing young person after young person can be seen wearing the football shirts of their heroes. it was much the same when I was at school, we were not able to wear football tops with the names of heroes but when it came to playing a game of football everybody wanted to be some great player and frequent arguments and some bullying often resulted until all had agreed who they would be. 

Not being interested in football I just wanted to be Ralph Taylor, so frequently I was not permitted to play because I had not selected a hero.

I still today find it sad that the cult of celebrity and personality turn people with feet of clay into heroes of the day.

If we are to put our faith and trust in anything. if we are going to invest our energy and time we should first make sure we have not chosen a bad example in which to put our trust.

Have a great day.