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(Im)Perfect Heroes

Everyone adores  hero - a strong protagonist; be it in the movies or more in the world of sports or life in general, we all want someone better than us that we can identify with and look up to.

However, the closer you get to reality, the definition of a hero starts to take a varied shape.  The difference between these heroes and the fictional story of what we've imagined them to be is just that - the fictional heroes could be damn near perfect, and most of the time, they are the winners.

Cut to real-life, and this poses an interesting contradiction about the heroes we adore and admire - the world glorifies their success, maybe even makes a story out of their struggles. Still, no one except for a select few close to them knows what their struggle truthfully is. Unlike some of the fictional heroes, these are real people at the pinnacle of achievement due to their expertise and divine intervention, but they have some of the same follies and misgivings as mere mortals. 

We like them not just for what they do, but who they are; we think of them as perfect, maybe even infallible, something we aspire to but know we never might be. This is the root of fanaticism.

When we start seeing chinks in the otherwise perfect armor of these imperfect beings, the tribal instincts start taking root - we resort to vehemently defending that person (almost ignoring the act that said person is alleged to have partaken in) or engage in whataboutery.  Very rarely, we will just give up; not just on that person, but on society, and say well - they were a good person, but this is a sign of the times.

The human character is often compared to a canvas - with multiple shades and colors that make up a picture. I would, however, liken it to the painter's pallet. Unlike a blank canvas, the pallet is shaded with stains of old color mixed with some fresh colors, all blended together to make an imperfect mix.  The older colors blended into the pallet almost rigidly are thoughts, feelings, and ideas we've been carrying around for several lifetimes. There are some basic tones and shades, and there are some eccentric colors that have taken shape due to random colors mixing. Together, this combination of colors is what makes them come alive on the canvas called life, along with the divine artist's inspired imagination.

Our lives, and those of our heroes, are more similar than different. We may love them because they appear more inspired - they're like shades of those eccentric colors in the pallet but they still have some of those base colors in their canvas that can become apparent once in a while. It is easy to forget, but they too are just like us - a smattering of colors on the imperfect canvas of an entropic universe.

 

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