~~~ Be a Hero ~~~~

       With the new Indiana Jones movie coming out this week there are a lot of shows on TV about Indiana Jones. What makes Indiana Jones such as great character is that he is a hero. At the same time, he is just a college professor. He is a regular person who does heroic things. He has a code of ethics and he does what ever it takes to protect the treasures of the world from criminals. Indy is someone we can relate to because he is only heroic because he has to be. 

      We live in a crazy world today. If we ever needed heroes, we need them today, but how do we define what makes a hero? Indiana Jones is a hero because he never gives up. Jasmine and he adopted son Du were heroes to each other. Jasmine looks at Du and sees a kid who she admires because he never gave up; he did whatever was necessary to survive:

…he has lived through five or six languages, five or six countries, two or three centuries of history; has seen his country, city, and family butchered, bargained with pirates and bureaucrats, eaten filth in order to stay alive; that he has survived every degradation known to this century…he has always trained with live ammo, without a net, with no multiple choice (Mukherjee 214).

      Du was a hero to Jasmine because he inspired her to not give up her goals or her dreams. Heroes are determined to do what needs to be done. They do not think about the hardships they will have to endure, but only think about what is necessary and/or what is right. Jimmy Carter is a hero because he knew that when he spoke up for the Palestinians he would be attacked in the media and it would be brutal, but he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. 

      Not every hero is like Indiana Jones or Jimmy Carter. There are heroes, like Du, that no one knows about except the person to whom they are a hero. This is the kind of hero Mr. Ono is. His daughters are not seeing him as a hero, but he is a hero to his grandson. He takes him to the park and movies. His grandson is so happy to see him and children are not easily fooled. A man who is a good father and grandfather is a hero. Far too many men do not take this most important responsibility seriously. They think that their careers are more important. They want to create a legacy not realizing that their legacy is in the respect their children have for them. Mr. Ono is also a hero is that he was willing to admit when he made a mistake. He hid his shame for a long time, but he knew inside that he had done wrong and finally apologized for having helped the war which resulted in harm to his fellow countrymen. He said “Our nation, it seems, whatever mistakes it may have made in the past, has now another chance to make a better go of things” (Ishiguro 206). Mr. Ono realizes that he made mistakes and in his second chance he is going to learn from his mistakes. He also said,

“When I am an old man, when I look back over my life and see I have devoted it to the task of capturing the unique beauty of that world, I believe that I will be well satisfied. And no man will make me believe I’ve wasted my time” (Ishiguro 150-151).

      We do not have to save the world to be a hero, like Indiana Jones. We only have to live our life in a way that when we are old we can look back and say we did not waste our time, or bring harm to others. If we set a good example we are a hero to those who benefit. A person told me recently that in her worst semester there was one thing that kept her going and that was this one person who always made her laugh whenever she saw him. He had no idea that he small jokes and goofiness helped her not give up. Everything good she does now is because one guy always had a smile to share, a kind word, and a silly question or joke. 

      In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Salah asks Indiana Jones, “What will you do?” Indy looks at him and says, “I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go.” Like Indy, we don’t start out the day with “be a hero” on our list of things to do. However, if we are kind, generous, honor our ethics, take advantage of opportunities to help others, we will be a hero to some one, even if we never know about it. That is how we can be a responsible citizen amid the narratives of hope and despair locally and globally.