life by candlelight

So, I'd like to talk about heroes today because my mind is still on the Alamo. I know many Texans will be bothered by the new "Alamo" film because it dispenses with many of the legends that we hold dear. Davy Crockett does not go down fighting in a blaze of glory. Travis does not draw a line in the sand and Bowie doesn't have himself carried over it. Emily Morgan (the Yellow Rose of Texas) isn't shown distracting Santa Anna with her...um...girly bits at San Jacinto. And Sam Houston is depicted not as a military vistionary but a drunkard. But does this make the men and women of the Texas revolution any less heroes? I don't think so.

I read somewhere once that to set up our heroes as perfect does everyone a disservice. It makes your average person think that he or she cannot rise to heroic levels. Any hero you can think of has some dark secret or flaw. For example, Martin Luther King, Jr. was an adulterer. Does that make his contribution any less significant? No. Is it a little disappointing? Yes. We would like our heroes to be perfect. But if they were, how could we ever become heroes. Do you think the brave men and women who rushed in to help on 9/11 were perfect? No. They were ordinary people who were driven to extraordinary actions. We can be heroes too.

I went to a benefit last night for the Rape Awareness and Assistance Program. It was really good. I love stuff like that. And I actually won something. A keg of beer from the Wynkoop Brewery. Now I'll just have to decide how to use it.