Nemo's hidden soapbox.

I thought here I would talk about somethings. Things that need to be said.

The things I believe in.

Let's start with heroes. Heroes are the people who bind us, the personifications of the very ideals we all spend so long trying to achieve. But can we ever? Can we hold our selves to their examples? Can we embrace the things that matter in the way as to keep them so?

First it's important to define just what a hero is. Many of you, those who know me and scoff as you read this will instantly assume I speak of superheroes, and thats not too far from the truth. No, I don't mean that the only way to be a hero is to put on a mask and go out and beat up muggers. No matter how hard certain parties have tried to make that seem. What I mean is simple: A hero is someone who puts others first, over their own happiness, over what they want most in life, over even their own life if need be.

Yes, a hero could be as simple as just going about your daily life, but for me, that smacks of trite sentimentality and rationalization, and this is not a rational world. This is a world where people die in the streets because our world moves too fast to offer help, where we go out of our way to try and make it their fault-” They should get a job; If I could make it, so can they!” The continuing myth of “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.”. Bulljive.

This is a world where we go about our business and we step on those who would help us, who stand by something as we all did in a better time. A world without hope, without the standard bearers of all that is right and just in humanity. A world without human kindness, without heed of massive collective ego. It is a world I have come to despise, a world I swore in a naive and foolhardy moment to change. We embrace this world because in the end we know no other way; rather, we don't WANT to know any other way. We like our greed. Our cowardice. We like our lives as free of strife as we can manage. And so we are diminished.

No, a hero need not be super. A hero can simply be one who realizes the truth about us. Who refuses to accept our cowardice, our collective greed as their own, and fights, with all the skill and verve in them to escape, to stand away from the herd. A hero can simply be one who stands apart.

Second, it's important to understand just what a hero stands for, in the first place. This is more a than a question of values; It's the heart that chooses, that fights. The heart that takes the blows the world throws back. The heart that dies first when the war ends and the hero is defeated. It's about struggle, standing for something as no one in this day could or would do, accepting the world itself as a dragon to slay, who's bones are to be used to build a new and better one.

It's about sacrifice. About having the courage to watch all you want walk away because in the end you know they would be better off where they're going, about being unafraid to stand on the edge of that dank, dark pit that is soul death because the people you care about are on their way to edge and the only way to stop them is to fall before them as a cushion. It's about walking that long dusty road to Golgotha so that no one else ever has to. And it hurts, as all things that matter hurt. But it cannot be helped. It must not. Not if the sacrifice is pure, not without giving up the truth of the cause in which it is made.

It's about love. The love of another over one's self, turning one's own hatred and despise for one's self into the fuel to keep others going. It's about accepting all that comes with living as a symbol rather that as a human; For humans have the luxury of putting their own desires first, of choosing life over the alternative. A hero must be higher, must make all the days of their life mean something more, in tribute of all they give up, living monuments of the truth.

It's about compassion, the endless sea of of feeling that allows one to feel others pain before their own, to stand in the path of destruction as it sweeps toward another, to spare them that destruction and take on the consequences themselves, to prevent the falling of tears.

And it's about loneliness. The loneliness of living your life for others. It is a hard life, walking the white path. So many falter on the way; no one is really pure. Many die by their own hand because in the end, the maw within their hearts consumes them utterly, and all that remains is the blind mercy. But for those that stand, those that walk the silent road all their days, there can be nothing else. They have made the journey. They have kept the faith.

Heroes are not born. They are forged. Only through fire, though suffering and pain, can the armor be forged, the armor that comforts and cuts in each step. As the sword is forged, so must be resolve. A hero, once a path is set, must never waver. Must never allow self deception, self esteem, to get in the way. A hero must remember always that to fail is to die. And must never shy away from that fact.

Because the truth is scarring. It cuts. It burns. It wounds deeply, never really heals, and stays with you all the days of your life. Because it must. It cannot be easy. To live the life of a hero is to accept pain. Or become the thing you fight against. To become the monster that lurks always in the shadows, the wolf faced demon that waits in the heart of every man. A hero must always stand ready against it, because, as has been said, “you live as you are, or you die as it.” Shining armor is only a myth. To be a hero is to meet the foe in flesh. In the most open way possible. As it must be.

Because in the end being a hero is about courage. The courage to hold conviction as sacrosanct, to place the truth and honor above everything else. To set others before one's self. And to face death with quiet determination and resolve.

Sadly, this all moot. All of it. Because there are no heroes left in man.

A lotta people forget the other stuff Bush protected us from.

Holy crap 4000.

Wow, I honestly never thought I would ever get here. I feel like I should be making some sort of speech.

APPLE PIE FOR EVERYONE!!!

Mental health moment.

With all the unpleasantness recently I figured we all need a moment to just.... to give us the warm fuzzies. This has always served to brighten my day, and so I'm proud to share it with all of you. Make sure to watch to the end; the D'awwws..... They are overpowering.

Also, I may in fact be an ass.

HODOR.

HODOR HODOR. HOOOODOOORRRRR HODOR.

HODOR, HO-DOR HO. DORHODOR HO.

HOOOOOOODOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRR