The following is an essay written by me about different kinds of heroic deeds which has been extracted from my book - The Universe - A Personal View ( page 175 to 177 )
Link to my book :- https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqa2hjbGlmZXN0eWxlfGd4OjM5NmM2NTViMjAzY2M5MTk
Of Heroes and Housewives
When we were young we all dreamed of becoming heroes after we grew up. The image of a hero changes with our age. For kids before the age of 10, Superman and Luke Skywalker of Star Wars fame are probably their idols. Then for the teenagers before 18, the image of a hero may have changed to sports megastars, movie idols and rock singers. After the age of 21, our image of a hero may have evolved yet again to cover successful business icons such as Bill Gates of the computer world or Rupert Murdoch of the mass media. Regardless of whom you consider to be a hero, there are certain essential traits that we can always find in such charismatic figures. These important qualities that make people heroes in the eyes of their fellow citizens include courage, generosity, compassion, perseverance, sense of justice, dedication to duty, unconditional sarcrifice and other less noble features such as fame and fortune or power and glamour. Standards for heroism also change through the different ages in human history and vary broadly according to cultural backgrounds. For example, some heroes in ancient history who died for their king in blind loyalty may now be considered as mere fools if they were alive today. The ethical standards may have been modified through the passage of time and changing circumstances. Take Alexander the Great as an illustration, he would have been branded a war monger by present day standards because of his ambition to conquer the world. Of course, he would still be praised for his support and contribution to development of knowledge and science.
Returning to real life heroes, I think they can be classified into the
following categories :- corporal, spiritual and intellectual. Lord Nelson of the Royal Navy who led his fleet to triumph in the defence of Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar but sacrificing his own life in the line of duty is a famous example of a hero of the corporal type. He gave up his life for his country. This category include all those who lost their lives in the defence of freedom and justice in the Great War, World War Two and all other bloody conflicts that involved the protection of innocent people, liberty and justice. The spiritual type of hero or heroine can be found in the outstanding example of the saintly personality of the Reverend Mother Teresa who devoted her entire life to helping the poor, the sick and the underprivileged people in the ghettos of Calcutta in India. Then the intellectual types are even more numerous. They include great scientists and thinkers such as Albert Einstein ( my favourite hero in this category ), Sir Issac Newton, Socrates of ancient Greece and Lao Tzu of ancient China. These intellectual heroes have shaped our minds and
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contributed tremendously to our understanding of the world and improved our standards of
living through their ground breaking knowledge in science and technology. Apart from
these giants of human history, there are, in fact, many unsung heroes and heroines among
us who are less conspicuous but they deserve our respect to no lesser degree. I am
referring to the dedicated policemen, fire fighters and the medical workers who make up
the essential services of our society. Their dedication and personal sacrifice can be clearly
seen during the outbreak of the bird flu epidemic in Hong Kong during 2003 when I was
still working in that Special Administrative Region of China. The medical staff of all public
hospitals there had to work around the clock during the epidemic to take care of the
infected patients. Because of quarantine requirements, they were not allowed to go home
to see their families months on end when the epidemic was at its height. Apart from the
serious problem of physical and mental fatique, they were also emotionally deprived in
missing their families who were also under the threat of the bird flu. The most heroic deed
came to light when a young doctor died after contracting the disease at the early stages of
the epidemic when not enough information was available to set up the necessary safety
procedures to protect the medical staff. This young real life hero was known to have spent
extra long hours beyond the call of duty in the hospital's intensive care unit to take care of
his patients thus resulting in the weakening of his own immune system against the bird flu.
As written in the New Testament of the Bible ( Gospel of St. John, 15 : 13 ) :-'' Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. “ The heroism exhibited
by this young doctor is no less noble and courageous than the soldier who dies in combat
in the defence of his country and freedom. Only in this case the young doctor was
knowingly taking a risk on his own life in combating disease to defend the lives of his
patience and paying the ultimate price for his noble mission.The fact that he faced no
bullets or bombs but a silent enemy did not require less courage and dedication as the
solder in the battle fields. Our hats off to the unsung heroes !
There is no doubt that it takes tremendous guts to go into battle to face the enemy in defence of justice and liberty. In this regard, I am very proud of the ANZAC tradition of my adopted country, Australia. Only briefly during the Second World War that Australia was threatened by the invasion of the evil military might of the then Empire of Japan when Darwin was bombed by the aircrafts from Japanese carriers in Feburary, 1942. Despite her relative safety due to her isolated location, Australian troops had always taken part in important conflicts first as a member of the British Empire and later as part of the British Commomwealth. They had also acted as a part of peace keeping forces under United Nation mandates on all occasions when freedom and the lives of innocent people were threatened. In this process, the precious lives of many Australian young men were sarcrificed for the noble ideals of justice and liberty. For these brave and noble souls, all Australians commemorate their deeds of heroism annually in the ANZAC Day parades. The inscriptions on the walls of the War Memorial in Melbourne- “ Lest we forget “ appropriately reflect the sense of honour and loss we bestowed on such heroes. When I first came to Australia in 1997, I was puzzled by the importance Australians place on the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey in 1915 which ended in the bloodiest defeat for the British and ANZAC troops. Later on, I realized that it was the sense of mateship and self- sacrifice made by many young ANZAC soldiers as young as 16 years of age in helping and caring for their fellow ranks and files that had won them the honour. In the course of their support for their wounded mates, those young heroes had to constantly move back and forth in the midst of flying bullets and shrapnals to bring the wounded medicines and supplies. Many paid the ultimate price in terms of their lives and limbs. This tragic and painful scenario lasted for a few months from August, 1915 to January, 1916 by which time more than 10,000 ANZAC troops were killed. It is not the war and fighting that the Gallipoli spirit is glorified. It is the selfless sacrifice made by these young heroes for their mates beyond the call of duty that had become the ANZAC spirit which is also the national spirits of Australia and New Zealand. While heroism can be used to motivate people especially the younger generation to do good, it can also be misused to lead people into committing hideous crimes. Japanese Militarism that ran rampant during the Second World War was misguided heroism. Furthermore, extremists groups the world over are still using misguided heroism as an effective tool to recruit young and innocent crusaders for their
There is no doubt that it takes tremendous guts to go into battle to face the enemy in defence of justice and liberty. In this regard, I am very proud of the ANZAC tradition of my adopted country, Australia. Only briefly during the Second World War that Australia was threatened by the invasion of the evil military might of the then Empire of Japan when Darwin was bombed by the aircrafts from Japanese carriers in Feburary, 1942. Despite her relative safety due to her isolated location, Australian troops had always taken part in important conflicts first as a member of the British Empire and later as part of the British Commomwealth. They had also acted as a part of peace keeping forces under United Nation mandates on all occasions when freedom and the lives of innocent people were threatened. In this process, the precious lives of many Australian young men were sarcrificed for the noble ideals of justice and liberty. For these brave and noble souls, all Australians commemorate their deeds of heroism annually in the ANZAC Day parades. The inscriptions on the walls of the War Memorial in Melbourne- “ Lest we forget “ appropriately reflect the sense of honour and loss we bestowed on such heroes. When I first came to Australia in 1997, I was puzzled by the importance Australians place on the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey in 1915 which ended in the bloodiest defeat for the British and ANZAC troops. Later on, I realized that it was the sense of mateship and self- sacrifice made by many young ANZAC soldiers as young as 16 years of age in helping and caring for their fellow ranks and files that had won them the honour. In the course of their support for their wounded mates, those young heroes had to constantly move back and forth in the midst of flying bullets and shrapnals to bring the wounded medicines and supplies. Many paid the ultimate price in terms of their lives and limbs. This tragic and painful scenario lasted for a few months from August, 1915 to January, 1916 by which time more than 10,000 ANZAC troops were killed. It is not the war and fighting that the Gallipoli spirit is glorified. It is the selfless sacrifice made by these young heroes for their mates beyond the call of duty that had become the ANZAC spirit which is also the national spirits of Australia and New Zealand. While heroism can be used to motivate people especially the younger generation to do good, it can also be misused to lead people into committing hideous crimes. Japanese Militarism that ran rampant during the Second World War was misguided heroism. Furthermore, extremists groups the world over are still using misguided heroism as an effective tool to recruit young and innocent crusaders for their
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perverted cause. How absurd is the claim that killing innocent lives through terrorist acts
will make a hero out of the participant and will bestow upon him the right to go to heaven.
Heroism based on fame and fortune can also do a lot of damage to the younger
generation in motivating them to becoming fanatic fans and supporters of their idols very
often leading them to a total neglect of their studies which should be their top prority. As
far as these famous idols are concerned, they can also suffer from the illusion of their own
invincibility arising from their popularity among their supporters. Many idols of fame and
fortune very often engage in risky habits ( such as drug abuse ) as well as dangerous
activities ( such as speeding ) under the influence of their illusion of invincibility thus
resulting in great personal tragedies. So, even heroes themselves must be level-headed
and must be able to make a distinction between people's perceived reality (PR) ( that they
are heroes ) and their own objective reality (OR) ( that they are nevertheless as human as
their supporters ). Confusing the two types of realities is a recipe for personal disasters.
Then there is heroism of a completely different kind which is, more often than not, taken for granted and most unfairly overlooked. It also concerns huge sacrifice and total dedication. Most of us have got one such heroine at home. Yes, It is your wife, or your mother, the housewives who have the twenty-four seven duty of caring for everyone in the family. Their sense of self-sacrifice is aptly reflected in a song sung by the great country singer Glen Campbell called “ Dreams of the Everyday Housewife “. The lyrics goes like this :- “ Such are the dreams of the everyday housewife you see everywhere any time of the day. Everyday housewives who gave up the good life for me ! “ This description is so true to life and it epitomizes the constant nature of the dedication of motherhood. Mothers all over the world have always been praised for their loving and caring nature. But the finer points of their dedication can only be appreciated in the light of the day in and day out patience and perseverance that is borne out by the tedious and never ending routines of house work all year round. In the battle fields, it only requires enough courage at the right time to become a hero and everything will be over in a matters of seconds if you become a martyr and you will be glorified forever. On the contrary, it takes an eternity to become a good housewife and the process goes on until the day you die. That must surely require a lot of courage, perseverance and total self-sacrifice to achieve. In this sense, housewives are greatest of heroines almost comparable to the calibre of the saintly Mother Teresa. Therefore, everyone whether you are a child or the husband should pay your housewife heroine the respect that is so rightly due to her. You should do this not just by moral support but by taking up whatever duty you are capable of around the house to lighten her load. A duty roster for everyone in the house is not a bad idea. At the very least, you should not make her job any more difficult by having a good habit in using the household facilities. Household work is just one aspect of being a mother. I have and I am sure you must also have come across cases of heroism involving self-sacrificing mothers. I was so touched by a documentary I had seen on the T.V.in Hong Kong a few years back that I had decided there and then to praise and glorify the great virtue of motherhood whenever I had the chance. The case concerned a mother in her fifties who was a widow and had a son of some twenty-five years of age who was a deformed cripple at birth. The son had deformed legs so that he was wheel chair bound since childhood. Before being able to use the wheel chair, our heroine mother had to carry her son around on her back all the time. After he was old enough for the wheel chair the mother had to push his son to school everyday in the wheel chair and had to care for him around the clock. Since the public facilities for the handicapped in Hong Kong are not so well developed, the mother was seen in the documentary to have to carry her adult son on her back when she went shopping at supermarkets or when entering and existing some public transportation systems. It was a very moving scene and brought tears to your eyes. One of the main purposes of the documentary was to raise public awareness of the plight of the handicapped population. The mother was also given a chance to make a public appeal for help in her particular case. Her main concern was not for her own desperate situation but she was worried about not being able to take care of her son any more as she continued to age. Her expressed wish was that the good Lord would give her longer years and the physical fitness to take care of her son. This is really human sacrifice in the highest order and, in my opinion, it even surpasses the heroism in the battle fields. For this heroic
Then there is heroism of a completely different kind which is, more often than not, taken for granted and most unfairly overlooked. It also concerns huge sacrifice and total dedication. Most of us have got one such heroine at home. Yes, It is your wife, or your mother, the housewives who have the twenty-four seven duty of caring for everyone in the family. Their sense of self-sacrifice is aptly reflected in a song sung by the great country singer Glen Campbell called “ Dreams of the Everyday Housewife “. The lyrics goes like this :- “ Such are the dreams of the everyday housewife you see everywhere any time of the day. Everyday housewives who gave up the good life for me ! “ This description is so true to life and it epitomizes the constant nature of the dedication of motherhood. Mothers all over the world have always been praised for their loving and caring nature. But the finer points of their dedication can only be appreciated in the light of the day in and day out patience and perseverance that is borne out by the tedious and never ending routines of house work all year round. In the battle fields, it only requires enough courage at the right time to become a hero and everything will be over in a matters of seconds if you become a martyr and you will be glorified forever. On the contrary, it takes an eternity to become a good housewife and the process goes on until the day you die. That must surely require a lot of courage, perseverance and total self-sacrifice to achieve. In this sense, housewives are greatest of heroines almost comparable to the calibre of the saintly Mother Teresa. Therefore, everyone whether you are a child or the husband should pay your housewife heroine the respect that is so rightly due to her. You should do this not just by moral support but by taking up whatever duty you are capable of around the house to lighten her load. A duty roster for everyone in the house is not a bad idea. At the very least, you should not make her job any more difficult by having a good habit in using the household facilities. Household work is just one aspect of being a mother. I have and I am sure you must also have come across cases of heroism involving self-sacrificing mothers. I was so touched by a documentary I had seen on the T.V.in Hong Kong a few years back that I had decided there and then to praise and glorify the great virtue of motherhood whenever I had the chance. The case concerned a mother in her fifties who was a widow and had a son of some twenty-five years of age who was a deformed cripple at birth. The son had deformed legs so that he was wheel chair bound since childhood. Before being able to use the wheel chair, our heroine mother had to carry her son around on her back all the time. After he was old enough for the wheel chair the mother had to push his son to school everyday in the wheel chair and had to care for him around the clock. Since the public facilities for the handicapped in Hong Kong are not so well developed, the mother was seen in the documentary to have to carry her adult son on her back when she went shopping at supermarkets or when entering and existing some public transportation systems. It was a very moving scene and brought tears to your eyes. One of the main purposes of the documentary was to raise public awareness of the plight of the handicapped population. The mother was also given a chance to make a public appeal for help in her particular case. Her main concern was not for her own desperate situation but she was worried about not being able to take care of her son any more as she continued to age. Her expressed wish was that the good Lord would give her longer years and the physical fitness to take care of her son. This is really human sacrifice in the highest order and, in my opinion, it even surpasses the heroism in the battle fields. For this heroic
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mother, her battle is for life. In this particular case, her appeal was met with some
enthusiastic financial supports from the public only to lighten her load for a while.
Unfortunately, there are other personal aspects of her tragic situation that she must face
alone. Life can be trying and, sometimes, cruel to some people. Only with the aid of the
unrelenting human spirit can the odds be overcome and this particular example is an
inspiration to us all. Heroes and housewives, your sense of self-less sarcrifice has
provided us with some profound insights into one of human being's most noble attributes
that has made the survival of the human race as a whole possible. This love and sacrifice
which are the hallmarks of motherhood is a part of the working of the Natural Law that has
enabled the cosmos to turn in unending cycles of regenerations of life and that is the
reason why life can go on against all impossible odds !
