Calling all heroes...
I’ve been thinking over the past few days about societies relationship to what we believe a hero to be. It would be easy for me to lament the fact that nurses, Doctors and ahem teachers are not appreciated enough; these are things we already know. Our fixation with celebrities and vacuous personalities has been very much a modern-day phenomenon, which has become exacerbated by the rise of reality television. Thankfully this seems to have dissipated somewhat, but I’m still very intrigued as to what our perception of a hero is. Does our own particular ideology correlate with specific age groups? Can one generation have their own version of the roles and responsibilities a hero plays? Does our age dictate our appreciation of what the term hero means?
My initial research question was framed in such a way as to understand the role of the mentor. To honour and praise the relationship he or her had played in someone’s life. Could my project be developed in a way of celebrating heroes? After all aren’t all successful mentors in one way or another heroes for the individual whose lives they have transformed?
The theme of altruism, has been a constant throughout this project. It was always about the mentor. The person who voluntarily put’s themselves forward to help others, often at the expense of their time and patience. Let us not undervalue the importance of that euphoric feeling we have, when we have a significant and influential role in someone’s life. There is food here for the mentor too. An area of interest is understanding why the mentor and hero often goes beyond what many of us are willing to do. Joseph Campbell stated that “When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” This heroic transformation is something I wish to pursue.
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