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Heroes in real life as well as in fiction encounter a variety of dragons they must slay. Some are internal, some external, and some require them to leave their families behind in order to experience the journey toward their ultimate purpose or mission.
Heroes in real life as well as in fiction encounter a variety of dragons they must slay. Some are internal, some external, and some require them to leave their families behind in order to experience the journey toward their ultimate purpose or mission.
Homer Hickam is a West
Virginia coal miner’s son. His father, his extended family and his community
expected him to follow his father’s path and vocation into the coal mines. His
memoir, Rocket Boys, tells of his father’s
adamant opposition to Homer’s obsession with rocketry after the first Sputnik launch.
While other teens were preparing for a life underground, he was experimenting
with propulsion even though his father, a mine superintendent, was a constant
reminder that his life seemed predestined for the harsh life of a coal miner.
In order for Homer to fulfill his true destiny, he had to
break free of the invisible constraints of his environment. Instinctively, he
put together a team of adults and fellow students that shared a belief in him
and his ideas. Failing miserably at first with cherry bomb rockets, he refused
to give up, eventually designing a rocket known as Auk XXXI that propelled
31,000 feet in altitude and going on to win a Gold Medal at the 1960 National
Science Fair.
He left home, as so many heroes must do, first to attend
Virginia Tech for a degree in Industrial Engineering, and then to join the
military, eventually winding up in Huntsville, Alabama with the United States
Army Aviation and Missile Command. His fascination and expertise in rocketry
and space led him to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
where he worked on the Hubble Space Telescope deployment mission, trained crews
for a number of Space Shuttle and Spacelab missions, and even worked on the
International Space Station Program.
Homer, like every hero, discovers people in his community
that are supportive of his ideas, providing advice and guidance. In fiction,
often these are sages that may never leave home themselves; from the rather
mundane life of a school teacher in coal country to unadorned, sometimes drab
homes of an oracle or philosopher. Sometimes these individuals open the hero’s
eyes to a life he could not otherwise have imagined. Other times, they open the
hero’s eyes to his own internal capabilities and talents.
Sometimes the hero is able to perform his mission without
ever leaving his community, but most often they find themselves on a journey
that takes them far from home. In Checkmate: Clans and Castles, my
ancestor William Neely leaves his home in Scotland to seek his fortune and his
fate in Ulster. That move would set off a chain of events not only for himself
but also for his descendants, eventually leading his great-grandchildren to
immigrate to America. One descendant, another William Neely, would be one of
the first to settle Fort Nashborough, clearing the area of trees around the
fort so unfriendly Indian tribes could be spotted earlier. William would die in
a Shawnee attack, his daughter Mary captured and held as a slave for three
years before managing to escape.
In each of their lives, they followed the hero’s journey:
William Neely of 1608 venturing away from all he had ever known to follow his
destiny in Ireland; William Neely of 1779 moving his cattle westward, his
family following on their own fateful river journey that would change their
lives forever (River Passage); and Mary Neely’s
capture, captivity and escape in which she had to find the hero within herself
not only to persevere and survive but eventually to triumph over her captors (Songbirds are Free).
Books show us what is possible in our lives even when we are
surrounded by people insisting on us living mediocre lives. They open the door
to different worlds, various cultures, bygone eras and always, always the hero.
And in the end, they show us that in each of us lives a hero; in each of us
lives a mission and a purpose that not only propels us forward but reaches back
to offer a hand to those behind us, lighting the way. And with each one that
follows, the trail becomes wider, the dragons sparser, the journey easier.
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