Heroes

The world always loves them, they always need them and they always make them. They get nice little nooks crafted in their honour in the imaginations and hearts of the general populace whose lives they leave mark on. But history doesn't use the same paint as the human imagination, it doesn't like the same colours for it's portraits. When we look at heroes in true fact, their flaws are endless, their collective dark sides, monstrous. It could be said that most heroes simply become heroes not by action, but by circumstance and the talent of the story teller. Or, how eventually mos of society doesn't care to listen to he whole tale, simply getting the bare essential opinion or image from a synopsis of the story. History books are written by the winners, as the saying goes, but victorious parties aren't the only ones who can write. Eventually, another culture will evaluate and detail the lives of an other's cultural folk heroes and forefathers. Da Vinci turns out to be a homosexual, Washington was an alcoholic, Kennedy was a womanizer, King Richard was a rapist and mass murderer. It seems that there can never really be an absolute hero any more, as there is always a perceived or absolute flaw in the pristine image applied. In the other end however, in many examples of the classical villains of history, we find a strange sense or trait of good intention that mildly persuades us or dilutes the hate or disdain in our imagination associated with them. Hitler was a vegetarian and a devout catholic, Genghis Khan made his men follow a strict code of honour to never kill children, and King Herod built a new temple of worship in Jerusalem. The black half of the typical hero/villain spectrum also becomes diluted with a strange dosage of heroism or honour that relieves their spiteful cowls. At any rate, all things being equal the world always needs heroes, not just for the counteraction of villainy, but sometimes simply to stand upon our vistas and show us that there is something in this world that we can smile about, or be proud of, relate to, or just infantaly gaze upwards to, as all of us walk along in our day.