In his book The Game, Ken Dryden grapples with our tendency to put sports heroes on a pedestal. Having been a professional athlete himself, Dryden is aware that he and his colleagues are just normal people, gifted in their area of expertise, yet relatively young, and with the same struggles of simply being human that we all face.
Dryden concludes: "Professional athletes do exciting, sometimes courageous, sometimes ennobling things, as heroes do, but no more than you do." In other words, Dryden is acknowledging that famous athletes do great things, but we all do great things, just as we all struggle.
The concept of hero worship is universal. At times we have revered intellectuals, political leaders, religious figures, entertainers and athletes. The Greeks created mythological characters, and by believing that our heroes are without human weakness, we too create an aura of myth around our idols. When their human weakness is exposed, we are often quite disillusioned and, as a result, our heroes fall.
By acknowledging our own inner greatness, we can avoid these ups and downs. We all have the potential to be heroes, we really are all capable of following the path of greatness. Having ups and downs in life is also very normal and it is part of the journey.
Perhaps one reason why we tend to put athletes on such a pedestal is because the goals in sports are very clear. We want to make it to the next level, we want to play in the professional league, we want to win the championship, and so on. When we watch and study others who have achieved what we want, we look at how they got there and take steps to do the same. This is a very normal and important aspect of goal setting.
Another reason why we may tend to give such attention to those who excel in sports is because it is a joy to see any task done at the level of mastery. We do the same with other forms of art, from music to theatre to painting. We love to look at what resonates within us, what wakes up our spirits.
When we can broaden our perspective and see all of life as an art form, we can see that there are masters all around us. In my own profession of teaching I sometimes have the privilege of seeing one of my colleagues at work. It is truly beautiful to see how they are able to take a complex concept and make it understandable, how they are able to bring an idea to life and speak to the hearts and minds of the young people sitting in front of them, how they are able to deal with the challenges that each of these students face and still move forward. Though teaching is not a spectator sport, when it is done well it is truly poetry in motion, and it is done well by countless numbers of people every day.
In addition, we broaden our paradigm when we acknowledge, as Wendy Mass states, "...everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about." Achieving celebrity status does not eliminate these challenges from life. Our heroes will make mistakes just like we do. The key is to get back up and keep trying when we fall.
Life itself is a beautiful work of art. Each of us has the potential to be a superstar in our own setting; each of us can be a hero. When we can embrace these truths within our own hearts, we realize that we too are destined for greatness.
