I have a suspicion that one of life's little tricks is that a few of us get the opportunity to be somebody really spectacular and make it look so easy that the rest of us wonder what is wrong with us that we can't be like them?American Idol, The Olympics, The PGA Tour and even Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune all make success seem emminently do-able. These are ordinary people! They put their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us. If Bill Gates can be a bazillionaire so can I. If Picabo Street can win a gold medal after crashing into a fence at 80mph then so can my sister. If Bill Murray can become a famous comedic actor just be being himself then why not my brother (who is much funnier than Bill)?
When the fortunate few wake up every day and make a fantastic living by making the rest of us look bad to each other and to ourselves then we regular Joe's gravitate toward the anti hero, the underdog and the trusty the one-hit-wonder. We identify with the man who stopped the subway train from jumping the tracks, got the little girl out of the drain pipe and pushed the old lady out of the way of the drunk driver. How about the woman who grabbed the wheel of the school bus just before it crashed, helped the kid in the wheelchair to navigate the ramp and went out of her way to call a sick neighbor. We love these heroes!
The kids I really can't stand are the show off skateboarders, snowboarders and freestyle motocross riders. These people risk serious injury to do aerial stunts disguised as daring acts of bravery. If they really want to show people what great heroes they are they should get off their skateboards, pull up their pants and turn their hats to the front for a change, spend less time getting lip piercings and tattoos of their ex girlfriends name on their necks and stop trying so hard to get on MTV Cribs!
Hey Dude, be a real hero, at least look like you are trying to get a job!
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