I love the TV show Heroes. I guess you might say I am part of the built-in demographic for the program. I read and collected comic books from an early age until well into my 30's. I am a science fiction reading daughter of a science fiction reader. (In fact, family lore has it that my mother had a subscription to Analog before it was Analog.) I believe in the ability for one or two people to make a difference in the world. I believe that good will win out.
My heroes growing up were the super heroes in my comic books. They had the ability to change the world. They took unstable situations and made them right. They knew what to do, even if what to do wasn't easy. They had as much angst as anyone else I knew, but they still acted and made a difference.
By the time I got to college, my heroes had changed. My professors at Wartburg College become some of my greatest heroes. Here were people standing in front of a group, sharing information and keeping their students enthused and involved. We may not have enjoyed every class, but we learned. We learned not just the facts, but the questions and how to find the answers.
By graduation, I had added another hero: Alan Kay who invented the DynaBook. Imagine, looking at the computer world in the early 1960's and seeing a totally different way to do things. He and his project team looked at the text based ideas and said "Nope - not right". They developed ideas that affect our lives today, even if it did take decades for others to realize what was really being proposed. The language they developed (Smalltalk) was intended to help people split what something did in a program from what it was (or represented). That thought made me itch to go out and try it.
It took along time for me to realize who the real hero of my adult life was: My wonder hubby. He is a balanced, intelligent man. He puts up with all the craziness of being the spouse of a writer, speaker, and consultant. He tells the world's worst jokes and will pun war with the best of them. He is a geek's geek. He can fix just about any broken piece of hardware... sometimes just by looking at it and reminding it that he has "tools in the truck" (inside joke... Sorry). He takes the time to do what I need done when I can't. The man isn't a saint... believe me. But he is definitely hero material.
My heroes have greatly influenced what I do with my life. I think that the early influence of the comic super heroes gave me a start towards being better than I was. They pushed me to try harder, to do more. The professors in college made me realize that I could do things no one else belived I could. They taught me to question, to push the boundaries, and to find what worked for me. Alan Kay and his team showed me a new way to look at computers. Bruce showed me that what everyone else had taught me could be used to make an impact and to live the life I wanted.
We all need heroes. We need to believe in. Someone who can do things we can't. Heroes, like dreams, keep us stretching - growing - thinking - reaching. Who are your heroes? And do they know it?
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