Whenever I "get" to go to a staff meeting outside of our school building, it's very likely that I'll have to partner up with a stranger, and we'll be instructed to tell each other who is our hero and why. Then, five awkward minutes later, we'll have to stand up and share our partner's information with the room.
I know this is a "getting to know you" exercise, but it's frustrating. The "hero question" feels too loaded and too constricting: people seem to go with a name that somehow proves who they are as a person. I'm 40, and I still don't know exactly who I am. So who do I pick as a name that somehow defines me?
If I say Jesus I'm a devote Christian. If I say Ronald Regan I'm a hard line conservative. If I say Barack Obama I'm a bleeding heart liberal. If I say Michael Jordan I'm a die hard sports fan. If I say my wife's name I'm a smarmy sap. If I name someone from work I'm a suck-up. If I say Jimi Hendrix I'm a music fan who's okay with heroin use. If I say Batman I believe in imaginary people, and I probably shouldn't be influencing children.
So, I have no good answer.
At the last development meeting I told my new "pal", a woman with poppy seeds stuck in her teeth, that "Thomas Edison is my hero," and then I scraped out of my barrel's bottom, "because he never gave up... uummm... on the light bulb.".
Sad.
Link: "Heroes" Triple Fast Action
I'm now 47, and I still don't have a hero answer.
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