Making a dent

Heroes come in many forms.

The traditional hero in comic books and blockbuster movies, including the animation flick "The Incredibles" and the new TV show "Heroes" on NBC, depict a world of fantasy in which magical powers can suddenly make everything right again. But saving the world doesn't necessarily require a cape and the ability to fly.

Oprah Winfrey has opened a school for children in Africa. Angelina Jolie regularly volunteers in third world countries. Brad Pitt has been photographed raising awareness in post-Katrina New Orleans, and produced the recent documentary "God Grew Tired of Us" about Sudanese refugees.

These celebrities may lead us to believe that making a difference requires a large bank account. Too bad fame also comes with the guarantee your marriage will end in divorce and your next baby will be named after yesterday's lunch.

Real heroes are an inspiration without even knowing it. They aren't pretentious or hypocritical. They don't wallow in pity parties (at least for long), and accept the struggles that life gives them. They don't seek special attention. They just are.

My grandfather and his sister have each had more than their fair share of visits to Roswell Park Cancer Institute in downtown Buffalo within the past few years. My grandfather is fighting a rare form of facial cancer, my great aunt a persistent ovarian cancer. They aren't the complaining kind, but the hells they have gone through make me think twice when I begin to find fault in my own life.

After an extended hospital stay, my great aunt recently made a surprise visit to the female chorus she has been a part of for over a decade, where they were gathered for a special holiday dinner. When she entered the room every member rose from their seats in salute. Over eighty women spontaneously broke out in a cappella singing, "you are my hero."

They are proof that we don't have to be famous with a lot of money to leave a legacy behind. Columns in The Spectrum have pointed to the genocide in Sudan, telling students they should become involved. The nightly news is flooded with programs about starving children and war torn countries in the Middle East. But what can we do? Run-of-the-mill students with barely enough time to shower properly or do our laundry?

Perhaps we tell ourselves that a single person can never make a significant dent in the world, that we don't have the time and will get around to making a difference when we are retired with plenty of zeros in the bank.

Why not start now? As a bonus the good deeds can be added to your r?(c)sum?(c). It takes more than donating money or used clothes, but the giving of oneself. Small acts of kindness can become a contagious link, one succeeding another.

If there's one New Year's resolution we should make, it should be the intention to make a difference, in some small way, at least once this year.

Heroes have the ability to make an ordinary life something extraordinary. They live life, embracing it, pushing its boundaries. Above all, they don't give up on the pursuit of something better, be it for themselves or someone else. It is this pursuit that makes us intrinsically human.

The recent movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" with Will Smith is a true story about Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman with full custody of his son who is forced to live on the streets while he participates in a non-paying, competitive internship to become a stockbroker. He doesn't take the easy way out, risking all he has for the chance of a better life.

It is these kind of people that are always the most interesting to interview as a reporter. There was a lady who gave up a full scholarship at the age of 20 to move to Hawaii and open a restaurant, a UB student who joined the Peace Corps after graduation to teach AIDS awareness in Africa and two students who single handedly organized a post-storm clean up after the sudden blizzard in October. And I will never forget the group of Buffalo residents who travel to an orphanage for girls in Honduras every January.

In my own life, I have observed great acts of heroism as well. A friend's mother gave up her job to care for her dying parents. My mother who puts her children's needs above her own, and my father who worked a fulltime job while attending school to support his family.

It is these everyday heroes, with only the powers of hope and love as their weapons, who awaken the courage within ourselves to become better than we are.