If you make it to age 30, you've usually got a pretty good story about the rocks you had to climb over, cliffs that you fell down and survived, accidents you've witnessed. Few people live tidy lives along a path that's straight, narrow, and true. We've left behind a good bit of wreckage and watched others do the same.
And, as a result, we develop stories about heroes. People who have done great things or people who have survived great hardship in the quest of something very ordinary. Recently, I heard the story of a Maine lobsterman, nearly 90, who got his hand caught in the ropes and had the ends of four fingers cut off, but the old salt still managed to bring all of the traps.
We hear these stories and wonder why we can't be like that guy. We see Curt Schilling and an infamous bloody sock. The Japanese gymnast in the Olympics many years ago who broke his leg during one routine and still nailed the landing with barely a grimace.
Why can't we be like that guy? Because we're not and, pretty much, we ain't gonna be. We change, but not much. For every kid who rises out of nowhere to become great, there are a hundred or maybe a thousand who stay behind. And what becomes of those people who stay behind? They go work. They become mothers and fathers. They worry about caring for their parents and making their neighborhoods better. Quite a few will die before their time because of booze, drugs, or just too much of too much. In all of those cases, our heroes could do little for us because they've already got full-time jobs being our heroes.
Look, if you're in trouble, whatever it might be. Pick something. Who's going to show up and help you when you're scared and confused? Not Oprah. Not Dr. Oz. Not Scott Brown. Not President Obama or Curt Schilling or that lobsterman from Maine. Not Taylor Swift or Bruce or Sergey Brin. Nope.
It's gonna be one of your kids, one of your neighbors, a friend you just met a few weeks ago. They're doing a little better than you right now and they can help. Another day, you'll be doing a little better than them and you can help. You take turns carrying each other. Those are the heroes who are gonna get you, or at least me, through another day.
So, the theory which is mine is that we're going to learn a lot more about living better from people who are more like us than we from our heroes.
