Wearing the Red Cape

When we were little, we defined heroes as Prince Charming saving the damsel in distress or Superman fighting crime in his red cape. As we matured, the posters on our walls evolved into provocative images of pop stars, celebrities, and athletes. We dressed like them in hopes that we could imitate them. We believed if we danced around our rooms belting out songs into hairbrushes, we could become J.Lo. If we threw a football far enough, we could become Joe Montana. If we helped enough people, we could become Gandhi.

Then we got to college, and suddenly all of the glitter and spandex didn’t seem like a dream. It seemed like a nightmare.

And that’s when, truthfully, I realized that I don’t know who my heroes are.

As I’ve gotten older, I have noticed that we tend to refuse the fantasies and the lives we wished we could have when we were children. Instead, we begin to idolize realistic people, placing the common person, who has shown extraordinary faith and passion, on a pedestal.

Perhaps it’s the guy running across campus in his pajamas to get to lecture on time. Maybe it’s a professor who challenges me. Or my friends, who have taught me what it means to have strength, perseverance, and confidence. Or my parents who sacrificed so much for me over the years.

There’s nothing wrong with transforming real people into heroes. It gives us hope and reassurance that we can make it in a world that often seems cruel, uninviting, and individualistic. Real people provide us with examples of the determination and drive it takes to step out of our familiarity and into the unknown. They are living proof that taking risks reaps benefits that don’t always materialize right away.

This idolization has also become a detriment to society. When we start to venerate people, we dehumanize them.

They become their success story, their story of triumph, their story of righteousness.

We begin to hold these heroes to higher standards and expectations. We expect them to be saints. We want them to always fight for what’s right, lead by example, and be what we think we cannot be.

In this process, we forget one thing.

Heroes are humans.

They are imperfect.

Our professor will present a horrible lecture. Friends will hurt us in unimaginable ways. Even our parents make mistakes. Celebrities harbor bad habits. Athletes hide secrets. Superman’s cape falters in flight.

As a society, we are predisposed to criticize and hide these flaws in our heroes. We refuse to believe that the people we look up to can disappoint us.

I once had a teacher who asked if we could really idolize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He led the Civil Rights Movement and fought for justice. His words shaped a nation. His aspirations inspired millions. But he was also an adulterer, this teacher proclaimed. He was a flawed man out of the limelight.

“So is he really a hero? Should we look up to someone like this?” She asked.

The answer, for me, is “yes.” A hero is not defined by being all good and a villain is not defined by being all evil.

People are both. We do the right things for the right reasons. We do the wrong things for the wrong, and sometimes right, reasons. It’s part of human nature.

It’s time to accept these imperfections as just one more thing that makes heroes just that. We need to stop overlooking the parts of life and people that we cannot support. Instead, it’s time to realize that the world isn’t black or white, right or wrong, good or evil. When we can do that, we can change our perception of what it means to be a hero.

That starts with us. That starts within us.

Instead of staring wide-eyed out into the world in awe of other’s false perfection, we can look into our ourselves. Our inherent “goodness” and “evilness” is the same as that of our heroes. We are not inferior to them. We are not sub par in the face of their heroism.

We have the ability to do what we set our minds to, and we don’t need the validation of others or an idol to emulate to tell us that. It’s time to stop looking up to heroes. It’s time to start becoming them. It’s about time we wear our own capes.

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