Remembering Our Heroes
I received a card once with the Maya Angelou quote on it, “I think a hero is any person really intent on
making this place a better place for all people”. It is a quote that has come to my mind at different points
over the years since I first read it.
I like the quote. I also would like to build on it.
I think a hero is any person really intent on making the place within themselves a better place for
themselves and for others.
By better, I do not mean more perfect. I do not mean a place so selective of and absent of certain
thoughts, emotions, and states that it looks like glossy ads of air-brushed smiling faces, or of people
leaping up into the air joyfully or walking on sunny beaches in perpetuity.
So what do I mean by the word, better?
It might take me time to arrive at something that feels like just the right word or phrase. In the
meantime, I will say that I mean a place in which you come to experience your wholeness, your full
humanity, and a place where, in this experiencing, you also experience qualities like peace, acceptance,
courage, strength; you experience something like friendly relations. Additionally, it is an inner place you
work to develop that although it is for you and for your benefit, it isn’t only for you. It is an inner place
that benefits and nourishes something larger, an inner place that makes the wider, outer, other places
better including for other beings, for all.
I think a hero is any person who holds the intention and works to cultivate this inner place of wholeness,
friendly relations, and wisdom, and who does this holding the wider view of the world around them.
As we commemorate National Heroes Day, may we never forget the lessons brought by the past and
the people who have sacrificed their lives for the country; for us to be able to experience the kind of life
we are living right now. Since we make heroes in our image and likeness, our choices and definitions say
a lot not about history and the past, but the present we live in. We need to make heroes of the ordinary
people. We need to make heroes of ourselves.