Heroes.

No, not the TV show (though that is an awesome show!) or the sandwich. Real life heroes.

As I try not to obsess about the marathon on Sunday, I find myself giving much (unnecessary) thought to how freely people assign the designation of "hero" to someone. I did a little research on the internet, and of course, there is no one answer or definition of a hero. Therefore, I have decided to give the blog-reading world my definition, and I realize I'm opening a can of worms with this post.

To me, a "hero" is someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty or responsibility, risking his/her life and/or saving another, outside of his/her normal activities.

Let's get this one out of the way first - sports figures, movie stars, etc. ARE NOT HEROES. It infuriates me so much when they are called heroes, mostly by our youth, and sadly by many adults! But I refuse to digress on this issue. You get the point, and hopefully agree with me.

Now, for something a little more complicated:

What about police officers, firemen, EMS, doctors, and...pilots? Obviously I bring this up because of the "splash crash" in the Hudson River yesterday. Wasn't the pilot just doing his job? Yes. Does that job sometimes involve more than taking off and landing safely on a concrete runway? Yes. So when a pilot has to make an emergency landing in water, and miraculously no one dies, and he walks through the plane twice to make sure no one was still on board before the plane sank...was he just doing his job, or is he a hero? To the passengers and their families, you bet he's a hero; but really, can you be deemed a hero if you were doing your job, doing what you were paid to do, doing what you were trained to do? I think the pilot was incredibly brave and courageous and quick-thinking in what he did, but he was trained for that. Does it make him a hero or just really good at his job?

Same for police officers and firemen - they are trained and paid to keep peace and save lives and prevent/thwart crime (among a ton of other responsibilities). Are they heroes if they save a baby from a burning building, or shoot a criminal who is threatening to kill an innocent hostage? Are they heroes if they die in the line of duty, like a burning roof caved in on them, or an officer was killed trying to bust up a crime? What about the firemen and women who rushed up the stairs in the World Trade Center - above and beyond? or is that the risk that comes with doing their jobs, the very jobs they voluntarily entered and trained for?

Doctors save lives every day. That's what they do, either through research, clinical practice, or both. They research and train and take continuing education to continuously better themselves and their skills. So, if a doctor finds the right combo of chemo and radiation to cure a patient of cancer, is that doctor a hero, or was he/she just doing the job they were trained to do?

Soldiers, the men and women fighting for our country, our freedom, or the freedom of others...are they heroes? Again, they chose the responsibility and trained for all war and non-war scenarios. If a soldier dies in action, killed by a roadside bomb, is he/she a hero? If a soldier throws his body on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers (I read about this during my Googling of heroes), is he a hero? He went above and beyond the call of duty. He sacrificed himself for the lives of others. But, you may say, that's what all soldiers are ultimately doing, right? So are they all heroes or just doing their job?

Its a pretty fine line, isn't it? That's why there is no solid definition or description of what makes someone a hero.

Expanding on that a bit, here are a few other examples:

A driver witnesses a terrible crash, stops his car and rushes to the scene to save passengers before the car explodes. Is he a hero? He had no responsibility or training or motive to make such a sacrifice, to put his life on the line to save another.

A neighbor witnesses another being attacked by a pit bull and rushes to beat the dog off of the victim, saving that person's limbs and possibly life while putting his own in danger. Hero? The neighbor saved a life, came to the rescue, when it was really not his responsibility or what he was trained to do.

If my mom needed a kidney to live, and my brother was a match and donated one of his, does that make him a hero? He saved her life, underwent risky surgery by choice, and possibly put his own longevity at risk because he would then only have one kidney. By my own stated definition, he would indeed be a hero, no?

To make this running-related, let's say my fellow runners and bloggers Jamoosh or Kathleen sees that I'm about to be hit by a car while running, and they rush to push me out of the way, only to bear the brunt of the impact, and sustain serious injury or death so that I would not. That would be heroic. We are just runners. We train to run, not sacrifice ourselves to save others in the process. On the flip side, if Jamoosh or Kathleen stop breathing while running and a coach performs CPR to save them, is that coach a hero? If they are trained in CPR, does that make them somewhat responsible to step in and take action, much like EMS personnel, and therefore doing a job they trained for, taking responsibility?

Which brings me to the next related thought running through my unfocused mind:

What's the difference between heroism and inspirational action? This season, several of my fellow runners were fortunate to know a young lady who trained with us who is blind. She had a running partner who ran with her every training run, and this girl finished the half marathon earlier this year. But was it heroic? It sure was awe-inspiring, motivating, and inspirational. And I hope that my running has been inspirational and motivating to others, but I don't think its heroic by any means. And if a person with a disability can accomplish the same thing I can with the same training and dedication and determination, is one more "heroic" than the other because of a disability? I know one is a whole lot more inspirational.

Was Rosa Parks a hero because she refused to go to the back of the bus? Her actions sure did inspire a culture-changing movement. Again, heroic or inspirational?

See, its a very, very thin line, the line between heroism and inspirational actions.

Bottom line is I could go on and on with various examples and scenarios, and I'm sure my opinions of heroism vary greatly from several of yours. I just think that if we toss around the word "hero" too much, as often as we do, it loses some of its meaning and value.

Meh, who am I kidding? What do I know? I'm just rambling today (see the dislaimer in my blog description above...I'm allowed to ramble, often meaninglessly), and now my mind is tired. But I hope I've made you think.

I guess now, I'll start obsessing about Sunday...