My son is five and he is absolutely obsessed with superheroes. I love fielding the questions he comes up with as he daydreams about his favorite heroes. "Hey dad..."
"Yes son?"
"Do you think that you are as strong as Spiderman, Iron Man, Superman, and Batman?"
"What do you think buddy?"
"Yeah, probably..." "What about the Hulk?"
At this point I am emboldened by his confidence in my strength so with confidence I answer, "Sure, I could throw the Hulk around."
My son giggles... "No, I don't think you can handle the Hulk he is really strong!"
I absolutely love that stuff. His solution to all kinds of problems is how said superhero would be able to help us. Frisbee on the roof then he proclaims too bad we can't climb like Spidey. Tired of riding in the car then he muses about how awesome it would be if we could just fly to our destination like Superman and of course his super dog. He plays with his imaginext in an elaborate imagination fueled world of superheroes and villains where Marvel and Dc combine forces and share super vehicles with no prejudice.
Now that I have painted that picture let's look at what has happened at his preschool twice in the last month. First they were having a day where firemen were coming to demonstrate what they do for the children. Mainly to show the kids what they look like if they are ever in a fire so that kiddos will not get scared, but also because it is an awesome treat for the kids because firemen are cool. His teacher was talking it up the day before and mentioned how firemen save people and my son perked up and told her, "Yeah they help people just like superheroes." To which his teacher told him that superheroes were not real... He was devastated. He crawled in the car after school and it was the absolute first thing he asked me in a forlorn demeanor. "Hey dad are superheroes real?"
Of course I told him that there are superheroes, and for now my reassurance trumped his teachers disdain for imagination. It did happen a second time and that is when I addressed the issue with his teacher explaining that I did not feel it was her place to tell my son what exists or doesn't. If we, his parents, want to tell him there is no Santa or superheroes then we will but otherwise leave the kids to their dreams. So far things seem to be going okay in that dept.
This did however get me to start thinking about heroes in our world today. I know that men and women that are involved selflessly in law enforcement and in the military are obviously heroes. Firemen, as so eloquently put by my son, are most assuredly heroes. EMT, teachers, nurses, and pretty much anyone that chose a career that is centered around helping people when often times that requires being utterly selfless should also be thrown in the hero column.
Without a doubt almost all of us had a bout of hero-worship of some kind when we were young and often times we still hold our sports heroes in high regard. I seriously do consider my dad as one of my heroes as well as my Papaw. They are great, loving, Godly men that are the definition of modern warriorship in almost every way.
That is where this ideology of Modern Warriorship fits in. We must strive to show our sons and daughters what men should be. Our sons cannot find out from society what a man is just like I do not want him to find out about the fiction world of superheroes from his preschool teacher. Our daughters must not find out what kind of man they need to marry from society but they must see that in us.
Somewhere between the ages of 3 and 13 our daydreams of Iron Man and Spiderman (I am more of a Marvel guy) are replaced with the blonde girl in the front of the class and the idea of hitting a home run in the little league game that night. Between these ages we become no longer satisfied with riding our bikes around but want the freedom of a vehicle with a promise of taking girls out on dates and going with buddies to wherever we can. These things are natural and part of life and honestly somewhat sad. We need to make sure that we take those natural tendencies of heroism that our little guys are drawn to and as they do grow older help them to understand that they can be heroes, so to speak, in their lives and for those that are around them. They can be the father that gets the frisbee off the roof without having the ability to shoot webbing out of his hands. They can be the husband that understands communication and romance are part of the deal without being emasculated. They can be the employee that works hard and with discipline.
Bottom line they can be a warrior and we must start to cultivate the idea of warriorship when they are still all about tight one-piece colorful suits, capes, and masks.