We all love a good hero story. From Homer’s Odyssey to the modern superhero comics of Superman and Batman, the hero theme is an essential part of literature and culture. In the modern media driven world we elevate a variety of people to hero status. We praise people from many walks of life as heroes and legends, however many let us down.
Probably the clearest examples of heroic failure come from the sports world. We watch athletes perform incredible feats before our eyes. Much of the time, good old fashioned hard work leads to amazing results. Then the unthinkable happens. These men and women who we use as role models fall from grace.
The most recent example is Lance Armstrong. After beating cancer, Armstrong returned to the sport of cycling. Not only was his return miraculous, he won the sport’s major race The Tour De France. Seven times. In a row. His success led to the establishment of the Livestrong foundation to help others fighting cancer and he was seen as an American hero, an example of what happens after hard work and determination. That is until his underworld of steroid use came to light. A spectacular fall from grace ensued and observers were left to wonder how we could be fooled into celebrating an imperfect man.
The Tiger Woods story is much of the same. He dominated the golf world unlike anyone had before. He was the chosen one since he was three. He seemed superhuman winning majors by multiple strokes and even winning four in a row at one point. Then came his infidelity. His personal life collapsed as did his professional career and observers were left to wonder what happened to their hero.
So what’s the lesson? Should we stop celebrating successful people and elevating them to hero status? We shouldn’t for two reasons.
First, a fall from grace is a terrific life lesson. The worst thought any person could have is that he or she is invincible. Everyone has weaknesses and everyone makes mistakes. Some mistakes are minor. We see these when our superhero athletes fail on the big stage. Some mistakes in life are far bigger. That’s where the Armstrongs and Woodses come into play. They show us that no person is impervious to making major mistakes. They exemplify why remaining humble, even when you are very successful, is so important.
Second, for every fall from grace there is a person who remains a good example of how to go about life. Tom Brady remains humble every day for a reason. He knows where he came from so he’s an athlete I’d be surprised to see fall so far. Derek Jeter has been a mainstay on the biggest baseball stage and does not succumb to the intense media pressure in New York. Tony Dungy, a Super Bowl champion coach, recently scraped an already damaged car and still gave the driver his information AND offered to fix it.
At the end of the day, heroes are so important to our culture. Whether you talk about the everyday hero like a member of the military risking his or her life on the front lines everyday or the sports hero working hard to achieve an ultimate goal, the hero helps us become a better person. Sometimes that happens when a hero shows that no one is perfect. Others it’s the hero that motivates us to expect more out of ourselves. In either case, we can only become better from following heroic figures.