The Heroic Nature of Normal

This past week the Grammy Awards were handed out and America got to see its favorite musical starlets strut down a red carpet, wearing the finest and most experimental clothing one can imagine. The lucky ones got to go home with trophies, the others were just there to bask in the sunlight of celebrity. The world paid attention because these are, of course, not your every day people. They are beautiful, charismatic and talented. They draw out our emotions in silky sweet love songs and pounding anthems against. Hundreds of thousands of kids in America sit at their televisions and call them heroes. Odd, isn't it?

It being odd is in no way a slight on the musicians, actors and athletes that are the stars of our celebrity universe. It is not degrading any of there achievements - making a quality record or movie is a task; ask anyone who has ever been involved in the arts, and they will undoubtedly tell you that good art is hard work. It is not because they are not worthy of being heroes; the struggles many of them have survived in order to rise from meager, lower class backgrounds to the halls of the rich and famous, are fascinating and, in some cases, inspiring. It is also not because the characters they play do not stir us - James Bond jumping from one crane to another (as Bond did in the last installment of the series, "Casino Royale"), is rather remarkable. What is odd is simple, straightforward and basic. Why, we must ask, are celebrities regarded as heroes when there is a plethora of deserving heroes walking around us unnoticed each and every day?

Let us look at an example to fully illustrate this point. On the hit TV show "24", Kiefer Sutherland's character, Jack Bauer, is always on a mission to save millions of people from the threat of terrorism. Bauer, with his whatever-it-takes attitude, routinely proves his loyalty to the United States by undergoing torture without letting slip any valuable information. For this, he has become a hero to many Americans. Now, let us shift to the real world, where thousands of babies are born every year. Each baby has a mother, obviously, who has undergone nine months of pregnancy and hours, sometimes even reaching more than a day, of labor. If you are a mother, then you know the excruciating pain labor can cause. If you are not a mother, talk to the mom nearest you to truly understand what these women go through. Jack Bauer, in his act of heroism, undergoes excruciating pain to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people; mothers undergo nine months of lifestyle altering pregnancy and then excruciating pain for the sake of only one life. Can you imagine what they would do if they had two kids in need of protection?

Physical pain is clearly not the only route to "hero status". One's sacrifice of time and one's effort is also a reason for admiration. Artists have naturally sacrificed much of their time and exerted much effort in their various pursuits (sometimes, as in the case of Michael Jackson and other pop idols, those sacrifices were made for them, not by them, at a very young age). At this point, there is a question that should be posed; are their sacrifices and effort more worthy than a public school teacher's? Or perhaps your local police- or fireperson's? They have all sacrificed career choices that had the potential to be much more lucrative in order to work for the public good. Parents are another wonderful example; they sacrifice much of their lives for the well-being of their children. Nor can it be fairly said that teachers, police- and firepersons and parents (in addition to countless other people), exude less effort in completing their tasks, day after day, than celebrities do.

We admire celebrities because the skills and talents they possess, we regard as unusual or different. Not everyone gets to be in a movie, sing a song that gets played on the radio or throw a 95 mile-per-hour fastball. However, our appreciation of them does not make them more heroic than many of our very own mothers.

It can reasonably be said that sacrifice and effort are the two calling cards of any hero. Our athletic heroes are willing to spend much of their effort on perfecting niche physical skills, impressing us by their dedication. They sacrifice their bodies to reach the echelon where heroes reside, by fearlessly pounding through linebackers, crashing into the outfield wall to catch a home run ball or taking a charge from a 250 pound shooting guard. In light of this, we must ask, is there anything that most celebrities will not sacrifice? Herein lies the difference between our celebrity heroes and the heroes we see on a daily basis.

The "normal" people that have been described as heroes, sacrifice their egos every day. Teachers, cops and firepersons, fathers and mothers, all know that they will gain no great societal acclaim for what they do. But they forge ahead, continuing to make the necessary sacrifices and putting in the required effort. No teacher is making a million dollars a year, no social worker is spending time buying mansions and mothers and fathers are busy with diapers, teaching values, setting curfews and worrying about drugs. They do what they do despite all this. This is not to say that celebrities do not love what they do and are in it just for the money; only that it is a lot easier and more attractive to do something when you will be handsomely rewarded, financially and socially, by doing it.

You want the real heroes? The ones who we know, without a doubt or question, will do what's necessary when something important is on the line? Find anyone who is a mother or father, anyone who is working a nine to five job serving his/her city, anyone who toils in relative obscurity for someone else's good. They are the heroes who are already doing what it takes when that important thing is on the line. Their cities, their neighborhoods, their kids are all dependent on them. Thank goodness they step up each and every day. Thank goodness we have heroes.