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“If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.”

Funny! The ‘book of quotations’ I took this from tags Bertrand Russell a controversialist. Those were the days! You could make a career out of being controversial. It would be, if nothing else, stimulating. Think of the rush that would come upon you with all the death threats, imagine the excitement of possible banishment from your country, not to mention the infamy.

I don’t suppose you have a job that you associate with the rush above. And what’s more, there are endless anxiety attacks, much dissatisfaction and worries to boot. To be honest, there isn’t a job that is above it all. The reason is… the point.

I have never stopped wondering why a superhero (or plain hero) is such an appealing quantity. Put yourself in my shoes and imagine you are in a universe where superheroes are real. That would naturally imply that you know nothing of the concepts of secret identities and secret origins. You would usually be the one seeing him on TV, reading about him, and on occasion being rescued by him.

He is an inspiring figure. He chooses to help you go through your life without much more trouble than is absolutely necessary (in the process, often saving your and your city scores of times a day).

Because you don’t know the hero who just flew/ zoomed/ flashed past you also lives a life not much unlike your own, you reflect on why he does what he does.

The reason… the point… is that his is the only kind of work that really matters. Your job is a means of sustaining yourself. His is a way of helping others, of standing up to injustice, of defending innocents, of serving the less fortunate and the weak.

You realise he is doing something with his life. More than just living it.

A day of lost work would mean unfilled forms, unsent letters, people and meetings missed and money lost. The world wouldn’t be a tad sorry for all of it. It wouldn’t stop to look back.

But a hero’s work, even you would admit, is important. Asteroids headed toward the earth are serious trouble. Monsters and mad scientists with doomsday devices will do more than stall the traffic. And the hero goes up against all that in spite of no pay.

You wish you could do that. You wish you would do that. But you wouldn’t. Of course, you are glad SOMEONE is doing it. It’s not because you are thick or insensitive. I know you can tell what it must feel like to be a hero.

The superhero is a metaphor. In our age (in the ‘real’ world), the superhero is a cultural message. He is the symbol of the helper, the right thinking individual, the potentially divine in all of us. He exists to be an example. I wrote this not to say that the superhero is great and noble (many times he is not, and acts merely in vengence or vanity). I wrote this to tell you why you like him (not knowing what guides him).

Posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 8:55 pm and filed under life, comics, theory.

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