I'm Batman (on "Simple Heroism")

I like Batman. I mean, really really like Batman. Maybe it’s the “Boom! Pow!” starbursts, or the tool belt with infinite slots for infinite things (c. Bat-Shark repellant, true story), but I’m pretty sure Batman is my favorite superhero. Beyond his billionaire status, and the greatest superhero movie EVER (c. “The Dark Knight”), there’s something about Batman that we rarely mention.

He’s human.

So while the X-Men are awesome, they’re also mutants. Superman is an alien. The ones who are human - Spiderman, The Flash, and Incredible Hulk to name a few - also had something happen to them to give them power. Let’s be honest: we aren’t sure that if something didn’t happen to them whether these superheroes would be “super” at all. Yet Batman is Bruce Wayne, fully and completely human.

There’s something simple about his heroism, in that nothingmajor needs to happen. Sure, things happened AROUND him (his parents were killed), and things are happening around us. Media has created more young millionaires than any other point in history; so too are there more homeless youth than ever before. In Chicago, where I am now, the violence is savage. Around the nation our hospitals and schools are fighting to see who sucks more, and our government is, well...it’s a mess. Is this America, or Gotham City? And who’s running this thing? Because whether Democrat or Republican, in hip-hop or on TV: all I see is Jokers.

How we the Kidults respond in the face of crisis around us will determine what the world becomes. We can choose to respond by blaming our leaders, and for good reason, or we can become the leaders we seek. Gandhi once said, “Be the Change you want to see in the world,” which means when you see an evil, become a good. When you see a dark, become a light. When you see a Joker, become a Batman.

We’re not as rich as Bruce Wayne but we are equally as human, equally as powerful. We can’t fly, and I’ve always wanted to be invisible, but inside of us lies the greatest power known to humankind: Will Power. All we have to do is see it wrong in the world and say, “I’m going to do something about this.” Maybe it means we don’t support BP Oil until they FIX IT. Maybe we fix an extra plate for that homeless person we pass everyday. Maybe, who knows? But something. Anything. We’re not just WATCHING anymore. That’s not what heroes do. And we need heroes.

As Bruce Wayne has shown us, the path to being a hero in your community can be as simple as listening to what’s going on inside of you. There I discover that I’m more than just human: I’m Batman.

What can you do today to change the world?