Heroes are those who provide help

I used to be scared of the dark as a young child. I liked to see my surroundings when I closed my eyes to go to sleep. Now, if I wake up with the lights still on, it means I fell asleep reading or watching TV.

I remember my dad telling me that if I trusted in God, I could trust that he would watch me while I sleep. He also told me it was highly unlikely that Darth Vader was in my closet and was waiting for my parents to leave before coming out with his lightsaber brightening up the room I shared with my brother. On a side note, at the end of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” in 2016, Darth Vader comes out of the dark on the good guys. Before they saw him, they heard him breathing before he lit up his lightsaber. It played like a nightmare I used to think about when I was little, but it was so cool to see it played out on the big screen.

Also played out was the journey of Luke Skywalker. My brother and I loved “Star Wars” from the time it came out. He favored Han Solo while I liked Luke. One could fly a fancy star ship and the other could use the force to have objects fly through the air.

Ultimately these were heroes who did extraordinary things while saving the galaxy, which leads me to another hero I admired when I was little. I can recall walking into a movie theater excited about seeing another movie. The year was 1978 and I was about to watch my first superhero film. 

It did not start out so well though with a planet blowing up because it was too close to the sun. But thankfully, a little boy was saved by his father, sending him to Earth, where he would be adopted. This young man discovered he had powers on Earth.

Of course, this young man turned out to be Superman. The story that flashed before my eyes made me believe a man could fly, catch the leading lady falling from a helicopter crash and save many lives. And when you throw on John Williams’ musical score, one that I would be humming for many days after, I could not help but to enjoy watching “Superman.”

By the time we walked out of the theater, I wanted a cape and the ability to fly. I knew I could not do that, but I did become a reporter in Milledgeville before moving to The Courier Herald in 2005. Another fun fact, former Dublin Mayor Phil Best calls me Clark Kent. He used to ring up the newspaper’s front office and asked to speak to Clark Kent. The receptionist usually did not get that the first time but knew from then on that he was referring to me.

There have been other heroes I liked growing up such as Spiderman and Batman. And later I have enjoyed watching the X-Men, the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.

When I think of an ultimate hero, it would have to be Jesus Christ. As we will hear in a few months during Christmas, Jesus left heaven to be born in a manger and live a human life. He was the light in the darkness, pointing everyone to his Father in heaven.

He was crucified for this, taking our place to cover our sins. But then he rose from the grave three days later. 

A few weeks ago, I was invited to the Dublin Exchange Club’s law enforcement and firefighters award ceremony. Year after year these men and women continue to put their lives on the line and run toward the danger while most of us run the other way.

They react as they are trained and make a difference in people’s lives. For those in law enforcement and firefighters, they meet a lot of people on their worst day.  

The definition of a hero is a person celebrated for bravery, helping others in face of danger. When I think of examples of heroes I think of law enforcement officers, firefighters, military, doctors, nurses and power linemen (I don’t know about you but the majority of us cannot do anything when the power goes out after a bad storm).

There are also those who take a stand for the weak or small. They may work in organizations like Stepping Stone, TLC CASA, The Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Dublin-Laurens Teen Court, Heart of Georgia Healthy Start, the Lighthouse Adult Day Care Center and W.I.N.G.S.

Sometimes we may not think of ourselves as heroes because we don’t have super powers and we look at what happened as only doing our job. But if we can help other people, like my father did by telling me to put my trust in God to get me to go to sleep, then it is important to do even the small things.