Heroes. They are the people we look up to, the ones who seem to achieve the impossible in front of the greatest adversity. They drive us, inspire us, help define us (or at least seemingly define us, as it was frequently a college admissions essay/interview question). I would wager that much of the greatness that people achieve in this world is the result of personal heroes.
But just as they inspire us, so, too, can they break us, devastate us, when they fall.
Some disturbing news from the celebrity circle yesterday. Something I never thought would ever happen. I was scanning the news, the uppity-up at work, when I came across this. For this not wanting to click the link, here is an excerpt:
“Hollywood movie star Sylvester Stallone admits he used Human Growth Hormone, HGH, to improve the appearance of his body for his latest Rambo movie, and does not think it was wrong to do so.”
Of course there is nothing wrong with defeating evil, but if you must do so with performance enhancing drugs, something is terribly wrong. Rambo is fraud. The bad guys have won. The Soviet Union was too strong for normal American Patriotism, it needed enhancement. I don’t remember much about the cold war beyond jokes about the giant birthmark on Gorbachev’s head, but this is devastating to our victory. To think that baby-oiled, bandana wearing American patriotism is not enough to defeat the evil in the world; that illegal substances are required to relinquish evil’s grip on the world spells doom, in these young eyes, for the world and mankind’s future.
…
But wait! As we know, the darkest hour always precedes the turning point towards great light, and in my heartbreaking despair over my fallen hero, a glimpse of the sun breached the horizon offering me sanctuary and solace when I stumbled upon this. Again, for those too lazy to click (or too engrossed with this article), here is an excerpt:
“They may no longer be new. They may no longer be kids. But NKOTB just might be out to prove they still have the right stuff.
New Kids on the Block, the prototypical boy band of the 1980s and early ’90s that preceded the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync on the pop charts and in the pages of Tiger Beat, are reportedly on track to reunite.”
Hallelujah!!! There are two shocking elements to this announcement. First, the New Kids on the Block are getting back together. Bzzzzzz! Shock number one, and what a shock it is. But, if you keep reading the article, you find out that the band made the announcement on “The band’s official Website, www.nkotb.com,”…
The New Kids on the Block have a website. Bzzzzzz! Shock number 2! No wonder so few people read Misusing Big Words. Everyone is on a site with no relevancy to anything that has occurred in the past 15 years. Like the Corn Nuts website; why would such a site exist? It has no reason, no purpose. Well…I guess it didn’t, until now with the return of my other heroes.
What a serendipitous occasion! While one hero falls into a big hole of lies and deceit, out of the hole of has-beens and irrelevancy climbs 5 heroes to take his place.
America still has a chance.