You matter, keep going.

It has been inspiring to witness the emergence of everyday heroes. From the medical professionals who are risking their lives and serving on the front lines at great sacrifice to the grocery store workers, postal service, and so many more ordinary roles of society that have been elevated to heroic.

Notice that all that it took was a change of context for heroes to rise out of nowhere. They were there in your life all along and have now been activated by the circumstances. In a way, they were just willing to continue to be who they are and keep doing their job. Perhaps with more courage and creativity than usual, but at one level it's just what they do.

That is the power of the everyday hero. It is not a special behaviour or set of skills, it is the ability to keep going and do what you normally are able to do in abnormal or challenging circumstances. That may be why heroes always say "I just did what anyone else would have done."

You matter.

Perhaps you have not been in circumstances which revealed that you matter to a heroic degree. However, in our deeply integrated society if you are passionate about what you do and concerned about the value of life, you may find that you do make a difference by just doing your thing. You never know what might be needed.

Yes there are some skill sets and life paths which are more "essential" and directly life supporting. And yes cultivating skills through training can increase the likelihood of being useful in more contexts, and that is why we provide training in life supporting skills.

However, I hope you remember that humans are naturally heroic when the context requires it. We have a built in life and species preserving instinct and we are surrounded by everyday heroes who could be activated at any moment. What if we were to honor and respect each other as the heroes in waiting that we are?

Please thank everyone who is taking a risk to do their job whenever you have the chance and share your inspiring hero stories. It reminds us all of who we are.

Keep going.

Some inspiring articles.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/meet-the-everyday-heroes-of-the-covid-19-crisis/

https://blog.richmond.edu/heroes/2020/04/04/heroism-arising-from-the-covid-19-pandemic/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/21/us/coronavirus-good-deeds-helpers-trnd/index.html