Are you a hero?

[ILLYRIAN]

I know what the answer to the question is, I was a volunteer firefighter for over 15 years. I was there to slow the rate of spread of each bushfire I went to, if I had to save an animal or a person from the fire I did, without a second thought, it is something you do. Several years later and not being a firefighter I save a person if a person needed saving. Am I a hero? Don't know don't care.

 

[GraceK]

For my loved ones. Everyone else can suck a duck.

I’m married to a martyr type who would stop on a rainy, dark night to help someone whose car broke down on the side of an abandoned road. I’ve had to smack that altruistic urge out of him for his own safety. 🙂

 

[GraceK]

 

[November]

a martyr type who would stop on a rainy, dark night to help someone

I got told off by the police, and later my parents for stopping to guide an elderly lady who had been walking head on into a high speed traffic off ramp. Apparently it was dangerous to assist an exhausted frail person at night. I don't get this world.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I don't know about the hero thing strictly speaking but I do live by certain codes; it is important to me to represent them whenever they are challenged. So for instance, my word means a lot to me, because I believe it is a virtue to keep one's word and to be trustworthy. So I do all that I can to keep that word and to keep my promises etc., and so I tend to speak carefully and deliberately, for once I have said something, I really can't allow myself to walk it back afterwards. I always try to own it. I have a lot of pet virtues like that. They are things that I try to live by.

I think it is really easy to say that you stand for something in the abstract. When there is nothing on the line, it is very easy to say whatever you want. Only when it becomes an inconvenience or when it becomes difficult to stand by those virtues can you really say that you possess them.

I guess I can identify with aspects of heroism. Full on hero though isn't really me though either, if I am being honest about it. It seems very demanding. I think being a hero really means going above and beyond what might be expected of a reasonable, good person. My sense of my various personal virtues keep me on a path of a certain way of life, but I don't take it to superhuman, above and beyond type levels. I would call my approach as trying to live with integrity, as I understand and desire it. That might be part of being a hero, but there obviously is more to it than just that.