Boswell: Anyone can be a hero

It’s by no means a little-known fact that I am a superhero junky, who has been reading Marvel comics since she was 12.

link Alisa Boswell

In fact, I subscribe to more series now than ever before for the simple fact that I can afford it; at 13, I could not.

Back in February, a friend of mine made a Facebook post, which read, “What qualifies as a hero in your mind?”

The post immediately started a frenzy of comments with philosophical conversation from “a hero could be a homeless man who offers his jacket to another to keep them warm” all the way to “true heroism is paradox where if you are hero to some, you are a villain to the contrary.”

Some just commented that they liked the post while others gave sarcastic answers, but clearly the question had stirred something in people.

I just liked the post and did not comment, but curiosity made me read the commentary. And it is not the post itself that has made me think of it off and on since, but one of the answers to the post.

I didn’t know this person at all, but it was a man named Blake who hit the nail on the head.

“A hero does what is right when they are not obligated to do so by anything other than their own set of morals without a thought of reward or recognition,” Blake wrote in the commentary.

Exactly.

I’ve had people ask me off and on why I love superheroes so much, and sometimes it’s hard to know how to give the answer, because I do not love superheroes for the costumes they wear and/or the cool powers they possess. I love them for the essence of who they are as people.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man is my favorite. More than anything with Peter, what I connected with the most was not his struggles of being a superhero but his struggles of being a human being and knowing where to draw the line with the gray area.

The friend who commented that a hero can be anyone is exactly right because, as Blake said, a hero is not kind and does not sacrifice because he/she is obligated to but because they want to, because they think of others before themselves.

Most of us could be heroes, but we choose not to be, because we’re caught up in the fabric of our own lives, our own heartaches and desires.

We’re not bad people; we’re just human beings, who are selfish by nature.

So if you take this column as anything, just take it as food for thought, and next time you begin to brush off someone else’s problems, stop and think what that other person might be going through.

Sometimes helping is as simple as a kind word and a smile. You never know, that one small gesture could very well make you that person’s hero for the day.

Alisa Boswell wants to be Spider-Man and writes for the Portales News-Tribune. Contact her at [email protected] or 575-356-4481