Greater love hath no man…

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/05/2009 (5718 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Everyone loves a hero. We look for them whenever we can. On radio, on television and in the newspapers, we hear and read as often as possible that someone is being “hailed as a hero.”

We need heroes. They ennoble us. They make us believe that our species can rise above self-interest, that life is more, in the words of philosopher Thomas Hobbes, than “nasty, brutish and short”.

But what exactly is a hero? The news has celebrated several in recent weeks. The latest and far from the least is Faron Hall. Hall is the 44-year-old man who dove into the icy waters of the Red River below Provencher Bridge to save a teenager from drowning. His action is as notable for who he is as what he did. In some ways, he typifies the kind of hero we yearn for.

As surely everyone in Manitoba and most people in Canada now know, Faron is a homeless man. He was able to jump into the river and save the boy because the embankment under the Provencher Bridge is his home. His action appears all the more remarkable because Faron’s life is marked by sadness and failure. By his own admission, he is a chronic alcoholic.

None of that matters. Rather, it enhances his status as a hero because, in the popular imagination he rose above his status in life. Whatever he has been, whatever failures have dogged him, in the moment when he had a choice — whether to see a boy drown or risk his own life — he took the route that nearly all of us hope we would take.

And so we celebrate him.

Heroism, courage and bravery, however, are not simple. The line between bravery and foolhardiness is a narrow one. When I took the Red Cross life-saving courses, I and my fellow students were told to always remember that once you entered the water to save someone: “There were two lives at risk.”

The implication was that you should save yourself if you had to. But how would you know the moment when you had to let go of the person you were saving? If you did, how would you feel? Complete the rescue and you are a hero. Fail and what are you?

The idea of the hero is deep in our mythology.

Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger, the 58-year-old pilot who landed his crippled, powerless plane in the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 people on board, was “hailed as a hero.”

So was Capt. Richard Phillips, who let himself be taken as a hostage by Somali pirates to protect his crew. Phillips said he was just doing his job. Does it lessen the idea of heroism that a captain is expected to put his crew first and himself second? What about soldiers? Are they lesser heroes because, in joining the army, they accept a risk of violent death?

Capt. Sullenberger’s piloting skills saved the passengers and crew on his aircraft. But isn’t that what he’s paid for? Don’t we hope that the selection process for pilots chooses the very people who have the skills and the grace under pressure to react in exactly the way Capt. Sullenberger did?

The answer is yes. But both captains are still heroes. Service people are honoured for bravery when they “go beyond the call of duty.” Capt. Sullenberger remained in his sinking plane to make sure everyone got out. Capt. Richards put his life on the line for his crew.

We admire heroes because we hope that if put to the test our courage will be sufficient for us to act bravely. We can be heroes to ourselves in many ways. Courage is what we use to overcome our fears. We think a child is brave to combat fears of the dark. We exercise courage when we stand up for what we believe is right, even though it may damage us.

Heroes, though, become heroes because they take a physical risk. The unknown Chinese man who stood in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square almost 20 years ago, the teenage boys who rescued a mother and her three children from a car that had careened into a flooded Saskatchewan field.

The idea of heroism and what it means to mankind is a deep part of our culture.

The Bible probably says it best. In the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus says this: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” You don’t have to be Christian for that to resonate. That idea imbues our culture. That is what Faron was prepared to do.

Nicholas Hirst is CEO of Winnipeg-based television and film producer Original Pictures Inc.