The World Has No Shortage of Heroes
2 mins read

The World Has No Shortage of Heroes

Living in the era of constant connectedness can mean bearing the burden of grief and sorrow for those that are suffering in far reaching corners of the world. That burden is amplified when those horrors strike home. 

I have found myself feeling overly anxious lately, as I’m sure you have as well. The tragedies at Newtown, the rapes and suicides of teenage girls and the bombings in Boston have left me with a broken heart for those families that have suffered extraordinary losses.  It wasn’t until a girlfriend of mine posted this quote from Mr. Rogers (a friendly blast from my past) that I started to look at some of this through different eyes:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping.’” Fred Rogers

How true indeed. What was overwhelmingly apparent, particularly in Boston, was how quickly everyone mobilized to help strangers in need.  The stories of human kindness are what have surfaced in my headline feeds and it has brought me to tears.  

Helping others can be as simple as offering a friendly face to someone who is struggling. Brent and Karin Cunningham provided Laura Wellington with that, his marathon space tent and so much more in this heart-warming story from the marathon.

The comedian, Patton Oswalt, said just what many, including myself, needed to hear this week:

This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, ‘The good outnumber you, and we always will.’”

Note: The full quote has been forwarded over 200,000 times.

There is a hero in all of us, all it takes is heart and compassion for others. Yet the power of being a hero can have an extraordinary effect not just on the individual you are helping, but on those that hear your story.

So as we struggle to help our children process the events of our reality, let’s accentuate how many heroes there are that are doing good things in the face of bad, and empower our children to help others.

While the world has no shortage of heroes we will always need more, and together we will persevere.

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