be a hero

I hung it in my office. There is an abstract drawing, very colorful, like a child’s—of a knight and funky friendly dragon. There is writing on it that says something like “He said, ‘Slaying a dragon is nothing. Try waking up each morning and loving the world. That takes a real hero.’”

This goal has set there, waiting for some major event to come along in my life. Did I think I was going to sprout wings and swoop down to save people, a modern-day superwoman?

You know what? I am a hero.

This is a goal I achieve every day when I get my children up, thinking quickly as I get dressed about what they need that day, remembering lunch money and lost socks.

I achieve this when I tell the truth, even truths people around me don’t want to hear.

I achieve this when I treat students with so much respect that it stops them in their tracks, and they look at me, like “don’t you know I’m nothing special?,” and I assure them that they all are special.

I achieve this when I pass on to my children the stories of their grandparents and great-grandparents, because I am preserving the values of my family and giving them to their offspring, knowing it will keep my children safe and well-fed on the kind of stuff that protects your soul from harm.

I achieve this when I share my father’s heritage of looking past race to see people, and then acting on that vision to fight desegregation.

I achieve this, some days, when I just get out of bed, because I’m the only person who knows what that simple act requires from me some days.

I achieve this when I live with this pain, trying to weave a life around it, a life that can wax and wane with the changing nature of pain.

It is not easy for me to see the best in me, with an environment that seems so determined to minimize me and humiliate me. But I am far more than this environment, and no matter what anyone says about me, no matter what they say, I know that I am driven by values that I cherish and nobody can take that away.

I am God’s child, as are we all.