Who are Heroes?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.  When I was growing up heroes seemed to be in rich supply.  They seemed wholesome and good.  The cartoons we watched had clear cut good guys and bad guys, and when we played, no one wanted to be the bad guys.  Now things are getting more "real" and the lines between good and bad are getting faded and blurred.  All to often the heroes we watch in movies or TV shows do things that just aren't right, that we would never want our kids to imitate.  They are actually antiheroes, people who find themselves on the right side of the law, almost by mistake.

I want my kids to have real heroes, who choose to be on the right side of the law, who still see the difference between right and wrong, who stand for something.  Heroes that work hard to persevere, even though everyone says they will feel.  I want the to look up to people like that.  More than that I want them to be people like that.  I believe they are people like that.  They have challenges, but they are persevering.  We may have high aspirations for them, but we don't believe they have any limits.  We don't see their hearing loss as a handicap, but as a way to grow and be better.  That's what a hero does.  They see opportunities when others see obstacles.

As I thought about what this blog would be, I thought I would write about men and women I knew or knew of that displayed heroic qualities for my kids to look up to.  Then I realized a couple of things.  Number one, I realized that my kids have heroes all around them in their families, and most importantly in their mom, who is the most amazing person in the world.  They will no what a hero is because they will always have their mom to look up to.  Number two, I realized that my kids are already heroes.  I look up to them.  Sometimes I feel bad for Johnny and all that he is missing, but then I see him smile, or I see him gently give Eliza a kiss or hug, or make her laugh.  He is not missing anything important.  I realized this blog would be about them and how they are growing from children to grown up heroes, and what we all can learn from them.