The Need for Heroes

The waves of time keep rolling further forward, than the effects appear to recede, only to move forward again in my life. The movement of the tide of age leaves its run-off on my life much like the waves of the ocean on a North Carolina beach. Some of those shores are standing much as they have for hundreds of years while others have shifted and moved many a mile. When we are children, everything seems so ‘big’. As we age, the ‘bigness’ sorta wears off like a pen or crayon marking rubbed out time and time again. The things that thrilled us so can fall prey to the ever shifting movement and ravages of life. It doesn’t always happen at once, it happens like the tides of the ocean wearing down a beach, year after year, decade after decade ‘till the land has literally shifted.

I saw a video not long ago, you can watch it on YouTube as well, about a little girl born in Scotland. She was VERY premature and has health issues. As she has aged, she has always wanted to meet a ‘Mermaid’. Well, as you can imagine, little child with health issues, who might not have a chance at a normal or long life gets a letter in the mail one day. She was requested, along with her family, to come out to one of the lochs in Scotland, (lake) for a special surprise. What she doesn’t know is someone from the aquarium nearby, is dressed with a Mermaid’s tail ready to surprise this precious little one with her dream.  

To everyone’s delight, but especially the sick little one, our Mermaid swims up from the depths and glides up to the little girl from the loch.

Magic – The look on this little girl’s face was worth everything that was put into this. The look on the participant’s face also showed the same kind of thrill and passion.

Talk about heroes…

All of them. Those that made it happen and this brave little girl.

As children, our parents, grandparents, Santa Claus, you name it… they are real and mythical heroes in our lives. I grew up with the mythical, historical standard stories of heroes from our past. I was determined to do the same for my children. When my son was born, I was determined to carry on the ‘lie’ about Santa Claus. Of course there was all of the bull around “It’s a lie, are you okay with teaching your kid it’s okay to lie?” or “Santa isn’t Christ, you are replacing Christ with a man.”

Yes my typical ‘internal’ response was to totally roll my eyes and pray those telling me could somehow find a life, but I would just smile and keep on with my plans.

I went to great lengths to convince my son that Santa ‘was’ coming and on Christmas morning have the ‘proof’ that our house had been visited. We had a fireplace back then and I would insert long straws that went through the fire curtain to a cup of milk. There were half eaten cookies and there was always a letter from old St. Nick, handwritten to my son about the important things of life and growing up to be a good man.

The magic in his eyes was worth it all. The seeds of magic and heroes were planted. This went on year after year. I don’t know what age it was that he started figuring things out, but his mom didn’t help. She wasn’t very careful one Christmas and he found his gifts…  But nonetheless, he experienced magic as I see it. And I pray it changed him.

When I run into people who don’t believe in ANYTHING outside of themselves, their own intellect, their own ability to figure the larger and smaller things of life, I feel sorry for them. The mystery of life is so much bigger, the expanse of the universe is out of our scope, and for me, the only way to try and ‘contain’ these things is to believe there is more, there is greater, there is good beyond anything I can imagine or understand.

I think Heaven is much this way…

I choose to believe my little who has gone before understands.

I choose to believe that those from my family who’ve led the way understand.

My dad has been and is still my greatest hero. He brought me home from work the other day and as we sat in my living room just talking, I realized that if I grew to be half the man he is, I would be ahead of the game.

My mom stood in the gap time and time again for us as kids. Even after my surgery last week, and to be truth be told, against my wishes, they were right there behind Elizabeth when I woke up with my typical ‘kill first’ reaction before getting my bearings.

But as I get older, I have gone from believing in Santa Claus, to creating the belief in Santa Claus for someone else, to back to thinking there is something of him, Santa Claus that is in all of us who believe. Does this come full circle for us? Will we will see…but I think I know. 🙂  

I know my dad and mom are human… they make mistakes like everyone, but in the end, they are still my heroes.

How does one get to this lofty position?  How do the magical hero’s really appear in our lives? Well, if we believe what we see in the movies, all we need is a fancy Iron Suit, a tight fitting leather outfit, (low cut in the front of course), with kicking moves and neat toys, a special serum to make us ‘better’ or a dose of gamma radiation in all of the wrong places! But in truth I think all we need to do is look at those around us who love us enough to walk with us, through the ups and downs, goods and bads, to see that they are leaving behind a life of mythical magical steps for us to follow.

It’s like those footprints they leave somehow have a glow and brightness that as time marches on, they get a little more intense and more impacting/important.

Peace on your Journey this week.