I grew up with a hero. His name is Mark Carrier. He was a safety for the Chicago Bears during the early to mid '90's. I was 10.
He was the last hero I had. The last idol; the man on the pedestal. I put him as high as I could until he was no longer a Chicago Bear. That's all my alligence was worth when I was a kid. Play the same position as me on my favorite team (we both played safety), and I'll put posters on the wall (please note: I never owned a Mark Carrier poster - seriously, who the fuck would print that? And further more, who the fuck would buy it?).
But, I digress - as I almost always do. Mark was the last. Sure, there were guys I would've love to have been like: M.J., Brian Urlacher, this guy. But, the thing I learned over time was that I stopped idolizing people. Sure, I knew there were people out there working their asses off everyday fighting for causes they believed in. There were people running into burning buildings to save strangers. There were people that worked 15 hour days to put food on the table or a roof over their kids' heads.
But, they were people. I've come to learn over time that people are simply human. Look at the A-Rod's and Mannies, the Murdoch's, Bush/Cheney's of the world. These men had all the power they could want - and somehow managed to completley blow it the fuck up. Yeah, that cliched quote comes into play:
"With great power comes great responsiblity."
But, it does.
But, so does this:
"Question everything."
We sit back too often and let things happen. The people that we put in charge of our lives, our world - the people we hold to a higher level of accord, the people we put on the pedastal - often fall the hardest. But, it's not their fault. Afterall, after 9/11, we found out about the heroes who had drug problems and failing marriages, just like other people - hell, your neighbor, or maybe you. Yet, for a moment - they were the ultimate heroes. Better than G.I. Joe and Superman (because even Christopher Reeve was human). They were super-human. But, most of all, they were human. To hold them to a higher degree is unfair.
We didn't hold our heroes accountable. Our leaders, award winners. Instead, we took their word as truth, until we found out that it wasn't. Then, we had the nerve to cry wolf.
Yes, life would be easier if we let the inner 10-year-old idolize the heroes we'd created. But, those heroes don't know what's best for that kid. The only one that does is you. You need to be your hero.
Those posters on your wall are getting old.
2 comments:
Yes, great blog post today. Three things I need to comment on:
1) I'm definitely stealing the "you" link to the mirror. Just letting you know that it's going to heppen and it'll probably happen soon.
2) How have I, after seven long years in your presence, never heard you speak of this Mark Carrier dude? Maybe it's because I immediately become limper than a 80-year-old hard-on when I hear you and the Err Dizz mention the Bears, but I digress.
3) The posters of Reggie Miller and the Beatles will remain on my office walls forever. So what if Reggie is one of the worst announcers in the history of television and so what if Lennon was a narcissist freak who masturbated three times a day to the freakiest shit alive (seriously, read the new book on Lennon..the guy was sex addict, drug addict, booze addict, Yoko addict..some weird shit he did and he wrote it all down) or that McCartney was a drug-addicted womanizer or that Harrison was ignorant husband or that even Starr can't remember a single incident from the 70's?
My heroes are extremely flawed. And yet, when I look in the mirror, even though I don't see a 3-a-day masturbator, sex addict, bad announcer, ignorant husband or drug addict, I still, in some twisted way, try to relate to the flawed heroes of my childhood. And as long as I've got that, the posters stay on the wall.
Stay thirsty, my friend.
1) I didn't patten it. This was my first mistake.
2) Mark and I had a history, until he became a Detroit Lion.
3) The fact that you have posters of Reggie-Reggie-Reggie on your wall shows who's wearing the pants in your relationship...the wife.
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