Love and Heroes

When is someone amazing? When is a feat of love or bravery above what we should expect from ourselves and neighbors on this planet? Is it simply when we sacrifice comfort? Is it when our act does not benefit us? Or, is it only when we face death? . . .

Perhaps we are amazing and heroic anytime our love is tested and we respond out of love, rather than fear.

I am currently reading, “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families,” by Philip Gourevitch and was struck again by the story of Paul Rusesabagina (the Rwandan hotel manager whose story was told in the movie “Hotel Rwanda”). When interviewed, he said he believed he was one of many doing everything in their power to save those they could, only afterwards did he realize he was one of very few.

What I am coming to believe is that being human is a struggle, and being poor is a greater struggle. It’s not about being African or about tribal warfare (those are excuses made by the perpetrators and by the international community which chose blindness). Love, for us, is as natural as hate; both take cultivation and both can flourish in the same environments.

Thankfully the majority of us will never face a situation that demands so much from us; in the West the stakes are rarely as high. But we all have opportunities to practice love and bravery daily, in our speech, in our actions, and in the politics we support.