WHAT IS A HERO IN THIS TARNISHED WORLD?

 

 

I keep losing followers, but there is one friend upon whom I can depend for a visit (besides the internet icon, Alex Cavanaugh):

  D.G. Hudson
http://dghudson-rainwriting.blogspot.com/

She commented upon my last post with several intriguing questions.  I answered from my heart as I try always to do.

Sandra Thrasher, my best friend, waging her own desperate battle against cancer,

read my comment and said I should post it where more could see D.G.'s insightful questions and my response.

Sandra is wiser than I so I did what she requested.  Here they are:

D.G. Hudson:

Sometimes being the hero, puts loss in one family while helping a stranger. Being a hero in our current age comes with a lot of unknowns (weapons, swarming). Are the days of the good Samaritan limited? Not everyone knows Victor's tricks.

Heroism has its down side. But when you're gone, you're gone. Unless you're invited to Meilori's. (not sure how you get on Roland's A-list).

My stumbling, though heart-felt, answer:

I put that dichotomy in the adventures of Samuel McCord.

His ceaseless striving to help the defenseless cost him his beloved wife, Meilori - who saw him putting strangers above her. (Not true in his heart but sometimes you believe your fears.)

Long ago, we broke the terms of the lease and since then, the world has been broken, filled with broken people.

There is no doubt that Evil has sharp teeth.

You never defeat it for long. It hides in the shadows, sharpening its claws. And it always returns at the whisper of its name. Always.

Even the original good Samaritan had to risk the danger that the injured person was not merely a thief, posing hurt to lure in a victim.

(That was a common ruse in those ancient days.)

 The original good Samaritan put his family's welfare at risk to help a stranger.

What do we do when we see hurt? The world is awash in agony. We cannot stem the entire tide, only one small spot of beach we stand upon. 

But we stumble, we fall, and it never seems enough, does it?

In every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.
 
Each smallest act of kindness -

even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile --

reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo,
 
because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.

Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others,
 
and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.

It all comes down to what sort of inspiration we are comfortable in being.

All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined --

those dead, those living, those generations yet to come --

that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.

May your Holidays be blessed and happy.  Thank you for being my friend, Roland