Imagine that you are just an average Jill or Joe going about your daily routine. On a typical day you are sitting in front of a computer, working in your office. Or you might be walking along a highway picking-up tin cans. Blink your eyes once, and then open them. Suddenly, you are spiraling in a sea of dozens of flashing lights and snapping cameras as numerous strangers simultaneously pull you in different directions while instructing you to do this and that, and rushing you here and there. Normalcy abruptly leaves your life.
Andy Warhol predicted that everyone would be “world famous for 15 minutes.” Life altering events can bring instantaneous fame to anyone in the blink of an eye, and the changes accompanying sudden notoriety can be a blessing or an albatross. While some bask in the limelight of discovery, others whose fame resulted from a heroic act unhesitatingly say to anyone within earshot, “I am not a hero.”
Traditional heroes are renowned military, religious, or political figures who have held an extended and important role in history, but reluctant heroes are more like shooting stars. They are ordinary people who by a quirk of fate emerge on the scene for a short while. Then, in a matter of days or months they may vanish again into anonymity. Just as quickly as their name sprouts in our memory, it is soon forgotten.
Ted Williams, Daniel Hernandez, Lenny Skutnik, Mike Jones, Jack Whittaker. Will you remember who they are a year or two from now? Do you even know who they are today? Each of these people achieved instant fame, because they happened to be at a particular place at a specific time or they did something that ignited a major change in their life.
Ted Williams, a homeless man, held up a sign. Daniel Hernandez, an intern in the office of a U.S. Congresswoman helped save her life. Lenny Skutnik, a former public servant, jumped into the icy Potomac River and rescued a passenger following a plane crash. Security officer Mike Jones felled a gunman who was shooting at participants at a school board meeting. Jack Whittaker merely purchased a ticket and won $315 million in the Powerball lottery. The common factor among them is that they all garnered instant fame. With fame comes responsibility. It can be a shiny, double-edged sword generating abundant good fortune or spawning cumulative troubles.