looking for a hero

In the words of another blogging friend: "I neeeeed a heeeerooo."

Not, as some may think, in order to have a person to look up to. Hero worship, for me, has very little to do with specific people, though of course I was not aware of this when I was much younger. My first heroes were Diego Maradona (1986 to 1994: even the tenacity of my adulation could not survive his drug convictions during the 1994 World Cup) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1987 to some-point-in-the-recent-past: the dead are beyond making mistakes and can thus be safely admired forever). Worlds apart, centuries apart - one a South American poor-boy-made-good, given to on-the-field histrionics and taking the name of the Lord in vain, but oh, when he played the Beautiful Game, what poetry was there! The other, a crusty, defiant, deaf German composer who wrote some of the most sublime music the world has ever heard to this day. But the two were really, in some ways, one and the same - and the prototypes for every single other 'hero' I've ever looked up to since.

In both the footballer and the composer, I saw resilience, strength, a refusal to abide by society's conventions when there was no good reason for doing so, and, above all - passion and excellence in their particular fields of endeavour. And it is because I need to believe that these traits are possible, that they are not merely unrealisable ideals, that I seek out people who embody them in lived reality.

So, who are my latest heroes? Unfortunately, the ability to hero-worship seems to decline with age. I no longer have a hero, and doubt if I'll ever have one again. A certain youthful blinkered-ness is needed to focus exclusively on all the things that make a person superhuman, and pretend that the all-too-human flaws are not there. And I do think that a certain clear-eyed-ness about human behaviour does come as one grows older, together with an increasing ability to accept that, this side of paradise, this ol' world is gonna keep on gettin' ya down unless ya adjust yer expectations somewhat to allow people to be just that: people.

Nonetheless, I'm grateful for my old heroes, and I'd heartily recommend them to anyone currently looking for a hero. Far better to idolise people who are several removes from your immediate lived reality, whose flaws and follies you can turn a convenient blind eye to, than to hero-worship someone within one's circle only to find that one's idol has clay feet.


Edit 31 Jan 2008:

Hot off the press: Maradona has just issued a public apology for his 'hand of God' goal against England in the 1986 World Cup.

Ok, can the 'me' of 2008 say to the 'me' of 1986: I don't believe you actually liked this guy so much! Check out that titanic ego! It would be enough to make anyone want to puke, if not that it were also so darned funny.
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