We Need A Hero

Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie ... where have all the heroes gone?

Where have all the good men gone
and where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?

Bonnie Tyler, I Need A Hero

This week the news has been full of Jeremy Lin. What a cool kid. He seems like just the sort of kid you hope your own kids can look up to and admire. A real hero. He's clean cut, educated, athletic and religious. What's not to like? He is the All-American kid.

 But then we have thought lots of other people were good role models too, and look how they turned out. Think Lindsay Lohan, Tiger Woods and Bill Clinton. People will disappoint us. We are all human. I have a few skeletons in my own closet, I hope never come out. Just another reason I won't be running for public office anytime soon. That and a complete political apathy.

It's easy to think that it's the media that drives the ascension and fall our heroes but none of us is infallible. Luckily for most of us, our biggest screw ups won't likely end up on the front page of the newspaper or across a CNN ticker. Thank God.

Even biblical heroes had their failings. Sure David struck down Goliath, but then he became a king and took another man's wife. I'm sure lots of little kids looked up to him when he killed that giant with a rock. Maybe not so much when they grew up and found out he was an adulterer.

That's the bitch of free will. We exercise it. Often. We act on our impulses both good and bad and then clean up the wreckage. Me included. Maybe that's why when a kid like Jeremy Lin comes along, he just seems a little too good to be true. You know that even now, some reporter is digging to besmirch his squeaky clean image.

Maybe we should all take a page out of the bible and not even cast that stone.

Maybe for a little while anyway, we can just enjoy having a hero.