In ancient societies and cultures, the hero was an individual who, dissatisfied with the current situation, felt there must be something more or better to life. So, they abandoned the comfort of their current place to endure life-threatening hardships and deadly obstacles, risking everything to return with new awareness or knowledge to enrich the collective life of the community.
As a member of an immigrant family, I see my parents as fitting this definition of heroism. In an age when great steamships were still used for transportation between continents, my mom loaded a smaller version of me, my sister and a trunk with our every worldly possession onto a big boat and traversed the globe on a courageous search for a better life.
Even though my mother, Elizebeth Skender, passed on after a stoic fight with colon cancer almost 20 years ago, her strength of spirit, self-sacrifice and kind values is the example of healthy behaviour that guides me on my wellness journey.
She is my hero and her spirit still shines bright like a sun, especially on the more dimly lit days.
In terms of mental wellness, we all need tangible reference points of character and behaviour to emulate during times of hardship and inner turmoil.
Rather than conjure up the usual suspects when we think of heroes: pro athletes, musicians, actors, or even famous writers, real heroes and heroic behaviour are lot less glamorous but a lot easier to identify with.
Self-sacrifice, courage and kindness are qualities that make up a hero. Someone who can shows us, no matter how difficult life gets, there is a possibility for a better place, emotionally and physically.
The single mom who sacrifices her own basic needs for her children’s happiness and well-being, the volunteers in our town who quietly give thousands of hours so community enriching events seamlessly happen. Or, even, the high school student who gets to school daily despite persistence social anxiety or other discouraging, invisible obstacles.
Currently, a group of Hondurans are now walking, without vehicles, from Honduras through Mexico toward the United States. Men, women and children walking over two thousand kilometers for the purpose of leaving extreme poverty and one of the most dangerous places on earth, to give their children a better, safer life. To me, that defines heroism.
The plight of refugees all around the globe have various causes: war, famine, environmental and climate disaster, but the common thread with all the situations is heroism and courage.
Your hero could be a loved one who is still with you in spirit, people in faraway places walking great distances to escape violence and suffering, or our locals friends who put the community’s needs before their own.
Acts of heroism surround us everywhere. We just have to choose to see them.
Robert Skender is a Powell River freelance writer and health commentator.
