We All Have A Hero Within

Never underestimate your impact.

Hello Dear Friends!

Welcome February! Can you believe it? February already. Spring is beckoning from just around the corner.

A quick side note to introduce you to the web version of A Life Considered. This is a snapshot of what that looks like on my desktop…

So if you have not been directly to my site before and this rich experience piques your interest, please come visit over here and bookmark for ease of future reference. xoxo ~ WRW

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Dear Circle,

Hero is a bit of a word in my family. But not the “tough guy” or “killer of bad guys” version that our modern-day society has come to believe it to mean and revere. Rather, in Ancient Greek the word hērō meant “protector.” A hero has strength for two. This is the version of hero esteemed in my family.

My daughter’s first name is a 6th century Pahlavi name which translates to “I would lay down my life for you.” Definitely hero-esq. And while watching my son blossom into himself over the years, I have come to find that true to his nature is the Ancient Greek hērō. In many situations, where we live, as well as in unfamiliar places that our travels have taken us, I have witnessed him instinctually stand up to protect others, ranging from a group of girls at a playground in London to even me, his 50 year old mom. It just is who he is. An “up-stander” versus a “bystander.” He can’t help himself but to speak up and stand up for another who is suffering an injustice and needs protection or additional strength.

Our world has needed heroes, up-standers, for centuries. I think of the network of free African Americans, assisted by abolitionists such as the Quakers, who created and worked the Underground Railroad; Miep Gies and Irene Gut Opdyke who hid Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust; The Jane Collective who worked in secrecy to provide abortions pre-Roe and are the model for many underground abortion groups who have joined together today to the same end. All heroes in my book.

Up-standers who put their own welfare on the line to provide help to another who would suffer otherwise. Some, who if caught, risked at a minimum, fines, prosecution and possible incarceration, and others who risked the ultimate punishment, death.

Despite being in the minority and the personal cost at risk, they made the decision to act based on their morals. They believed in the dire necessity to fight for the most fundamental of human rights: personal autonomy, religious freedom and bodily integrity. They silently spoke power to power by acting, even when they didn’t hold the strongest deck. They carried out these courageous acts against all odds. David versus Goliath.

I look at these people and I see a level of courage that feels foreign to me. Then I recall perhaps the most notable of heroes. A group whom I know well. Parents. Mothers and fathers have protected their children and have provided strength for two since the dawn of time. Without them, there literally would be no “us.”

I now understand that heroes are doing what they uniquely couldn’t help themselves but to do. Their actions were called from within, possessing them.

Retired U.S. Navy Four-Star Admiral William H. McRaven, who served as a Navy Seal for 37 years and as Commander of all U.S. Special Operation Forces from 2011 - 2014 and again from 2015 - 2018 shared the following in his book, The Hero Code.

“I came to realize that there is a hero in all of us. There is an innate code that has been there since the birth of mankind. It is written in our DNA. It is what drove the great expansion of humanity out of Africa. It summoned the explorers to cross the deserts and the seas. It helped create the great faiths. It emboldened the early scientists and philosophers. It nurtured the ill and infirm. It spoke truth to masses. It brought order to chaos and hope to the desperate. This code is not a cipher, or a cryptograph, or a puzzle to be solved. It is a moral code, an internal code of conduct that drives the human race to explore, to nurture, to comfort, to inspire, and to laugh so that societies can flourish.”

I would dare to say, however, that it is love that ultimately fuels a hero’s impetus to act in the presence of fear and great risk. Love propels us to do whatever it takes to fight for who or what we hold dear. The momma bear who puts herself between her child and harms way. The faithful companion dog who fights an intruder or aggressor. The patriot whose love for their country eclipses the fear of war. Love is the hero’s secret weapon. Our secret weapon.

“Courage is a whisper from above. When you listen with your heart, you will know what to do and how and when.” ~ Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands

We all have heroic potential. Many of us do heroic acts daily, not even realizing it because we are not out “killing bad guys.” Rather we are providing strength for more than ourselves. Acts that may seem insignificant, yet just may change the course of another person’s life, maybe even history. We certainly change our life for the better by doing good for another.

Let’s never underestimate our impact when we activate our heroic potential and let’s make sure to do that often.

Warmly, xoxo, WRW

P.S. This note is in honor of a dear hero in my family’s life. A highly regarded doctor who has spent his entire life deeply committed to caring for families and their children. A practitioner who has upheld his medical oath to do no harm to those whom he treats despite the harm it has caused him due to the assault on medical freedom in certain states. An up-stander who recognized his unique ability to help those who had nowhere else to turn. Thank you, Eugene, for your compassion and courage.

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