I have been thinking about heroes lately. In some ways it began when I was invited by NASA to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Apollo mission’s landing on the moon.
[ https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo11.html
]
I was asked to
participate in a ceremony for the opening of the Apollo Wing at the Astronaut
Hall of Fame at Cape Kennedy.
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Astronaut_Hall_of_Fame
]
Thirteen of the
twenty-one Apollo astronauts were there.
I sang three songs, and in thinking about what to sing, it occurred to
me that it was important to acknowledge where we have come from in the process
of honoring what has been accomplished. The
astronauts came from the planet Earth. They
gave us, as a result of their mission, a view of the Earth we had never before
seen. Their unique perspective showed
all of us how beautiful, whole and fragile the Earth is. We cannot celebrate the accomplishments of
the astronauts without acknowledging the home from which they had
traveled. Thinking of this, I chose to
sing, “The Flower that Shattered the Stone.”
It also occurred to me
that as we acknowledge the twenty-one astronauts of the Apollo program, it is
important to recognize the over 400,000 technicians, engineers and scientists
who made their accomplishments possible – and the secretaries, record-keepers,
and maintenance people who all had roles.
Our government, our nation, each of us as citizens joined together as
one – all of those who stood beside and behind were part of this effort,
without which the moon would have not been reached. We, in those moments in time, shared a
commitment as people – a commitment to a vision of what might be, not just what
is. The next song I sang was “Eagles and
Horses (I’m Flying Again).”
Every astronaut has
flown for every one of us. Then I wrote
the song, “Flying for Me,” after the Challenger misfortune, it included, “She
was flying for me,” in reference to Christa McAuliffe. She was.
They all were. They were flying
for everyone. So, this song seemed
appropriate at a celebration of extraordinary accomplishment.
Extraordinary
accomplishment- that seems to be part of what we hold in our hearts and recognize
when we say someone is a hero. We
recognize something special we admire, something we aspire to be
ourselves. The accomplishment has come
at great effort and inspires us to be more than we thought we could be.
I like to think each of
us has a hero inside. We also have a
demon within. It is what we each do with
the gifts we have that possibly can make us a hero. It is the choices we make. A moment of weakness, anger or jealousy may
awaken the demon within.
When it comes to making
choices, for all of us, it is the values we gather around us that determine
whether our hero within will emerge. It
is the way we choose to live in every moment.
It is what we do, or can’t do. These
choices in the end will define our character, our humanity, and whether or not
we will have made some contribution to the life around us.
Talent and success don’t make a hero. Celebrity is different from heroism. For me, being able to write music and sing all of the world does not make me a hero – much as I aspire to be one. I constantly remind myself that at any moment, for each of us, there is the possibility of falling away from responsible choices. I have enormous compassion for those who fall – as I have fallen so many times.
I have compassion for all of us, and for the
places throughout the world where it is now evident how profoundly humanity has
left the path of responsible action.
There are instances everywhere of people being less than human.
How can we hope to rise
above the worst we are capable of and allow the hero within to emerge? Perhaps it is the recognition of our ability
to make this choice that gives us the opportunity to rise above our weaknesses
and transcend our demons. It has
something to do with character and conscious choice. Perhaps character makes a hero. Perhaps conscious choice is essential to the
process. Perhaps spirit is the source
and grace is the way. Let us celebrate
those with the wisdom and courage to choose between the demons and the heroes
within.
No comments:
Post a Comment