Memories For A Great Hero

Arya Stark-GOT quotes by *paloStark
http://palostark.deviantart.com/

Memories are sometimes what we have left at the end of the day. It's one part of our self which we cannot control - memories come and go as they please, like a parade of foreigners trespassing in our daily life. For many migrant workers, these can be bittersweet, even painful visitors. On the other hand, a journalist and daughter of two Holocaust survivors Lily Brett answered the question of what it is to be human, as "to have compassion" for not just the people around you, but other people as well. Sometimes it might mean even having compassion for one's self, especially one's estranged memories.

When meeting the migrant workers who are recuperating, listening to their stories becomes an important event, even though informal. There is a sense of urgency sometimes in wanting to tell their stories, an uneasy polite jostling occurs as the stories simmer and shimmer beneath their rested but quietly desperate faces, even though they are now back in their own country. Perhaps the reason is that they still have the rest of their lives to live with.

What we often miss out is that we share the same world and life with them. The problems which we face are not that remote from them, and neither are their problems that alien to us. But unique to each of us are our contexts, our circumstances of having been born and placed where we are, all of us. But that does not mean there is a gap or a tangible division between any of us. We can even be closer than what we would normally tolerate, if we were to see and negotiate beyond the norms that we hedge and are wedged in-between.

But whatever walls we put up, real or otherwise, do not exclude us from the effects of the surges and pitfalls of living today. Beyond economic insecurity, failing values and moral codes, and an increasingly complex societal maze, there are very few people who talk about our personal will, responsibility, and commitment. No matter who or where we are, these values are forever important, yet they now seem unattractive compared to rights, affirmative democratic action, and subsidies.

Granted that larger-than-life heroes are a rare and threatened species, yet can we not realize other life-sized heroes possibly abounding in our memories? In the name of development, we are vowed to "do better" than them, yet what does that mean, really? And in many cases, wouldn’t these migrant workers be heroes in the script-writing industry’s sense of the word, getting entangled in unnecessary and challenging situations? For most of us, in the face of such difficult questions, we could just leave, take a walk, and seek another place. Or maybe, we could instead do the opposite, change boats, take the higher path: we reach out to other people who are asking questions like us, those who are heroes or otherwise, and start walking the talk together on this journey into a hidden world, one which is always there, yet not in our vision.

Imagine a group, a community, a nation of common every-day heroes that collaborate, share, and solve problems together exactly where and when needed. There are always the small microscopic things that matter, no matter where we are. And there are also the huge global problems which really need attention, no matter how difficult they are. There is room for many kinds of heroes, many kinds of groups, many kinds of heroic triumphs, for each of us. Let's find out what type of heroes are we, along with the migrant workers of the front lines, and discover what a bunch of heroes can change for the better in our world.