Day 072:
My little brother is in the phase of his life that he's all about superheroes. Among the few words he can say, he says "Batman" flawlessly (when he can't even pronounce some of my other siblings' names properly! hahaha!). In the Sunday I was home, there wasn't a moment I did not see him holding either a superman action figure, a batman action figure, a spiderman action figure, or any two of the three. He's in that wonderful stage of childhood, when we still have heroes.
Heroes.
A little bit of philosophy from undergrad. In Plato's construction of ethics, what is good and imperative is known only through the revelation of IDEAs, those perfect constructions that exist beyond this world of "light and shadows." We only have guidance about what is really good, what is really real through insights about this world that tell us about the perfect IDEA.
One way of identifying these IDEAS are through IDEALs... which are embodied by Heroes. Heroes are often embodiements of IDEALs in an untainted, straightforward, pure manner. Superman, Batman, Spiderman. That's why we need heroes... they guide us in finding ourselves. They point to what is "right". Questions like "What would Jesus do?" help. Children know this. That's why they play with action figures with all the joy in the world. At least, somehow, they find a way to play out their ideals.
We need our heroes.
[personal note: I feel fortunate to have met more than a few this weekend.]
No comments:
Post a Comment