Heroes

I’m reading David Brooks’ recent book, The Road to Character and it has reminded me that as a child, my favorite books were autobiographies. I wasn’t drawn to the lives of the rich and famous, but instead to those who had overcome incredible obstacles like Helen Keller and Anne Frank.As I got older, I realized that there were contemporary heroes who were busy with their lives of service: people like Mother Teresa, military heroes, and even my small town’s Chief of Police. They quietly and humbly went about making the world a safer and better place for humanity.Something has changed.David Brooks writes that there is a shift, “from a culture of self-effacement that says ‘Nobody’s better than me, but I’m no better than anyone else’ to a culture of self-promotion that says, ‘Recognize my accomplishments, I’m pretty special.’ Along with this rise in self-esteem, there has been a tremendous increase in the desire for fame. In 1976, fame ranked fifteenth out of sixteen when asked to list thei