On Heroes

It seems daily we are faced with the moral failures of our species. Turn on any radio or TV, open any newspaper or magazine and you will be faced with countless stories of people doing unspeakable things. And I’m not talking about the criminal element, I’m talking about everyday people doing things that only a few years ago would make our jaws drop, but today they seem all but commonplace. Our elected officials verbally bully each other in the name of running for office, lie consistently to whatever group they happen to be in front of, and then in a perfect example of “the pot calling the kettle black” point at their opponent. The current Presidential campaign makes me sad for our country. "How low can you go” has taken on a whole new meaning. It is win at all costs and the costs are high, very high.

Then there is our sporting world. I just read an article and watched the accompanied video of a Utah high school girl viciously kneeing her downed opponent in the face after a dead ball. She walked away like she had every right to do so, not even breaking stride. She was not given a yellow or red card, in fact, the whistle was never blown. No one said anything. Only after the video was presented to both schools was something done. She was verbally reprimanded and said she was “sorry”. I’m assuming she was “sorry” that someone caught it on video, not for her actions.

There are countless examples of parents’ harassing coaches, referees, and other parents in everything from t-ball to college sports. The creepiest incident is where one parent started stalking a twelve year old rival of his son. Stalking a twelve year old hoping to intimidate him enough that he would lose his edge and then his own son would succeed. Ick.

Then there is Lance. Sigh. He is the latest in a long line of sports “heroes” who have fallen from grace due to doping. Today he announced that he is stepping down from his Livestrong foundation. As more evidence by his teammates comes to light, it is all but certain the whole world will acknowledge that he doped, and I wonder, will he finally confess? I just heard there is video evidence, but for years now he has proclaimed his innocence. Not only proclaimed it, but built a business on it.

There’s a word, huh? Innocence.

And it’s that saying again, “win at all costs”. I wonder how people can feel good about “winning” when they know they had to cheat to get there. How is that winning? I’m here to state the obvious: it’s not winning, it’s cheating.  If you had to physically harm someone or stalk them or take drugs, you didn’t win, no matter what the score says. And you’ve diminished the very thing we love about sports; the idea of who is best. Who can run fastest, or hit the ball with the most finesse, or ride their bike the longest. Who, by hard work and God given talent, can go out there and thrill us with their feats. And here is where innocence comes in; it’s the innocence of sports that has always drawn me in. The child-like joy and wonder when hard work and circumstance collide. Olga’s bar routine. Any race Pre ever ran. Ali and Fraser. Jon log rolling across the finish line in Kona. In those moments you are filled with wonder and inspiration and someone becomes your hero.

Heroes, or the notion of them, are in every culture. The movies or stories we love most come with a clear hero and villain. Harry is a hero; Voldemort is not. Luke, Leia, and Han? Heroes. Darth and the Emperor? Not. I think these books and movies are so successful because we all need a good hero; someone to root for, someone to remind us that we need to fight for what is good, someone to emulate.

Which brings me to Felix Baumgartner and his free fall from space. On Sunday morning I had gotten ready for church and had some time to spare so I jumped on Facebook. My friend Dan had posted the live feed for a guy jumping from the stratosphere and although I had heard something about the jump earlier in the week, I had no idea what it was all about. I clicked on the link and was instantly spellbound. What I saw was a man in a tiny capsule ascending into the air by a specially made balloon. The man was in a space suit and as I listened, I learned he would be ascending to approximately 120,000’, would then step out of the capsule, and free fall back to earth. Is this guy insane? I was scared out of my mind, but I couldn’t stop watching.

Suffice it to say, I missed church.

As I watched, they spoke of how dangerous the jump was going to be. No one had ever ascended that high in a balloon before, no one had done a free fall from space, and the list of potential problems was long. They showed graphics of the position he would need to reach; head first, surprisingly enough, and said that tumbling head over heels would be okay and expected, but a flat spin would be very bad. As the balloon ascended past 120,000' and kept climbing, I was on the edge of my seat.

When the balloon leveled out, ground control took Felix through a detailed check list. My anxiety grew as he seemed to not respond to their commands and when he did he seemed lethargic and punchy. Finally, they made it through the check list and he opened the capsule door. After a few more checks, like taking off his restraining harness, which he didn’t readily do, causing me to fall into prayer for him, his poor Mom they kept flashing to, his equipment, and for myself, as my heart was in my throat, he stepped out onto the skateboard size landing.

The words he spoke were these “I wish the world could see what I can see ... Sometimes you have to go up really high to see how small you are.” And then he jumped.

Watching him fall through space was horrible and I found myself shouting prayers. When he started to tumble I was beside myself. The tumbling seemed to last forever, and then, just as if he had planned it all along, he got himself into the head down position and continued to rocket toward earth. The cheers from mission control were jubilant and after another minute or so of freefalling, his chute opened. I cheered like crazy, jumping up and down and crying. The screen then went from grayscale to full color and it showed him soaring towards earth. His touchdown was amazing…he lightly stepped out of the sky, his chute trailing behind him, then he fell to his knees and lifted his hands into the air.

And it got me thinking about heroes and cheats. And here’s the thing, Felix couldn’t cheat. There is no way to cheat jumping out of a tiny capsule from 128,100’. There is no drug you can take to be successful for a jump like that. You can’t beat up anyone or stalk someone to ensure success; you just have to work hard, really, really hard. You have to dream big, have unspeakable courage, and then you have to put the time in. You have to invent the needed equipment; you have to test the equipment by making test jumps, each higher than the last. You have to be mentally in shape, physically in shape, you have to know your craft. He had an incredible team around him, of course, and he said straight out he could not have gotten to where he did without them, but it came down to him and the stratosphere. At the press conference afterward a reporter asked him what he was thinking just before he jumped. He said, “I was thinking, ‘Please God don’t let me down.’ But if you are standing in His Son’s arms, there is nothing that can go wrong in that moment.”

He is the definition of a hero.

he•ro [heer-oh]     

noun, plural he•roes; 1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. 2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.

And I for one am thankful that in a week of continued political bickering, Lance’s further fall from grace, and the constant negativism that surrounds us, there was a guy with a dream, the courage, and the unbelievable skill to step out of the sky and fall with grace.