How to Be a Hero --- Revised

Narrator: “You’ve all heard about the infamous ‘tragic hero’…you know the one, destined for great things. Too bad their personality gets in the way! According to Aristotle, if you just follow these simple steps, you’re a shoo-in.

Step 1: Be born noble

Step 2: Hamartia, or more simply, have a flaw that, well, eventually kills you

Step 3: Of course, your great downfall!

Steps 4 and 5: Peripeteia, also known as a reversal of fortune and usually accompanied by self-realization, unfortunately arriving a touch too late

As a bonus, although it doesn’t directly apply to the hero, step 6: catharsis. The witnesses of the main event experience fear and/or sympathize with the hero.

Hamlet ring a bell anyone? Can’t say I sympathized with him though…I mean really, just do something already! But I digress…

Anyway…those rules may have applied back in Shakespeare’s day but now? Things are different. I’m here to tell you, demonstrations included, how YOU, an average, everyday, kinda guy (or girl) can be a hero.

Step 1: Be born. Noble? Not such a big deal anymore. We’re gonna lay off the demonstration on this one though.

(motions someone off stage)

Step 2: “Reversal of fortune”. I put this here because our modern hero is a little more positive. You didn’t really start off with the best things going for you so this premature reversal ensures that your future is a bright and merry one.

(cheesy smile)

Steps 3 and 4: Somewhat linked with step 2, step 3 includes what is no longer your FLAW but rather your defining characteristic. You luck out: instead of killing you it actually changes your life for the better. Say your defining characteristic is always helping others in a time of crisis…

(narrator strolls through these scenes gesturing at each one as he passes them)

….you bandage your friend’s forehead when they fall

….you help old ladies across the street

….you save a jogger from a rabid otter (true story)

Going along with this one is step 4: awareness. Since you already know of your skill, when the time calls for you to put it to use, you can get down to business.

Finally, Step 5: The Great Unveiling. This is when you put your mad skills to the test. As an added bonus, if all goes well, instead of pity, your witnesses feel admiration for you.

(again the narrator walks by the scene)

…it comes naturally to you as you dine at your favorite restaurant and the elderly woman next to you begins choking. You immediately go to her and properly perform the Heimlich maneuver saving her life.

(a group of people fawn over the hero)

As you can see, heroes are much more realistic with these revisions. You don’t have to be anyone extraordinary, just be the good in someone else’s life for a moment.”