Humilty and Heroism

We often think of heroes as having some sort of superhuman or miracluous power that makes our mouths drop, our eyes bulge, and the hairs on our arms & neck stand up. This, I believe, is what draws myself and countless others to such thrills as the Sierra Nevada mountains, epic movies like Gladiator and Troy, amazing comic books and novels like Batman and Odd Thomas, the beautiful introspective songs of folk/rock, and the supreme smash-mouth sport of the NFL and UFC.

There are certain people/humans who have inspired this sense of awe in me - and I noticed recently that they all had one thing in common:

Both humility and heroism.

These exist in these souls in a balance that seems both impeccable and impossible... Most of these heroes however do not have a monument, they have no best selling story, they have no claims to fame or fortune... they are people human history will not remember.

To attain fame, wealth, status, respect, fear, and acknowledgement for things done in this life that history recognizes and records is one thing, but not the thing I'm talking about. Most of society deems only these to be heroic.

In a definition simply put: we affirm heroes as those who have overcome anonymnity, poverty, dysfuntion, war and obscurity AND have climbed up the social ladder of success (whatever that looks like in a particular field). Surely that is part of heroism, and is worthy of recognition.

However none of that is spurned out of a life of humility. This is why so many of our heroes often fail in our eyes when we really get to know them; because they do not represent a beautiful humilty.

What I find so often missing in our societal heroes today, is any sense of this art of humility. Even worse, is the lack of any same sense of awe and reverence about the trait when we do experience it as a society. We so easily let it pass us by without comment, without recognition, without awe. Moreso is our gravitation towards the spectacular upwardly mobile acrobat.

The true heroes in the world seem to be tragecting on a narrower, less congested, and often more confusing path... one completely upside down and contrary to popular affirmation and opinion. They are leaving the fame, fortune, power, control, glitz and glam, and notariety behind for a deeper, more priceless reward -- which I call contentment.

Contentment: Knowing (the complete sense of the word) that you have more than enough.

To achieve any kind of contentment, one must be a hero. In order to be a hero, one must overcome something terrible. In order to overcome something terrible, one must have humility. In order to have humility, one must be discontent.

What I mean is that my idea of humilty is societies' definition of heroism turned on it's head.

Who is your hero?

How do you define heroism, or humility?