Excerpt From Who Are The Heroes

The big five. What are they? No, I’m not referring to the four professions I have discussed in this book. I am referring to something equally as important. They are the driving force and representation of the professions I have written about in this book. There are many things in life that just don’t apply to professions, they apply to life in general. Your life, my life and everyone’s life. Or they should. They make up our character. Both who and what we are. They comprise our system of values, morals, and other personality traits that will determine how we live our lives. Many people are easily fooled because they take people for face value. What you see is what you get. Wouldn’t be nice if we could really do that? Wouldn’t be even nicer if we could trust that people are in fact what they present themselves to be. The perception of how they want us to perceive them. Many often do, only to be hurt or betrayed in the process. And we ask ourselves, why do so many people mistrust? How many times will be put our hands on the hot burner of a stove before we learn it’s hot, and won’t do it again. This has happened in so many relationship in particular, that this is how people putting up walls and barriers to protect themselves get started.

So what are the big five? What are these key elements? The big five are the essence of what heroes are made of. Not all people that are considered heroes look at themselves as having these qualities, but if you were to peel them back, you would find they possess them all. We need to look at these, understand their meaning, than look at ourselves and ask, do we possess these traits?

Honor, Loyalty, Trust, Pride and Dignity (discussed in much greater detail in the actual book)

Living by these words does not mean you have to live by supporting things you do believe in, or are totally against. These words are not meant to dictate to you your choices, but if you are to follow them, they dictate to you the manner in which you will do them. After reading the definitions of these words and my explanation of them, you should be able to see how they are all interconnected. One affects the other. The controversial issue is, can you only portray one or two of these traits and not have the others. That’s for you to decide. For me, if you don’t have all five, you don’t have any. You can’t say you have honor, if you don’t have self-respect. You can’t say you have pride if you don’t have dignity. You can’t have loyalty I you don’t have trust.

These are troubling times. The world is in a very unbalanced position. Everyone worries about the super powers, China, Russia, or the United Sates going to war. Those are the last countries I worry about. Although our relationships may be strained from time to time because of who we support, there is balance of power. We can all do the same equal amount of devastation to each which would have a destructive impact on the whole world, including their own country. For me it terrorism that’s our biggest global threat, and the little guy. Who’s the little guy? The little guy is the much smaller country that is ruled by a dictatorship that now wants to feel and play in the same game as the big boys. It’s like putting a little league pitcher in the major league world series. They’ll never win. Those are the dangerous countries because they have something they are trying to prove, and can and will take any means necessary to prove it.

Countries that if push came to shove, could be wiped off the face of this earth without hurting a tree in the neighboring peaceful country. They threaten the strategic advantage and value of a region in the world, i.e., The Middle East. An area where the major powers will not allow to become jeopardized. These are the dangerous countries because they are the ones that just might be stupid enough try do something to prove a point. It is unfortunate that they haven’t learned they can more for their country through peace and negotiating for what they need, verses trying to bring a knife to a gun fight. These leaders do not possess, nor do they portray, what I call the big five.