Monday, July 28, 2008

We can be heroes

I was someone's hero last week. I was at Bodega with a mixed group of people I knew and didn't know and one of the ones I didn't know kept requesting 80s songs from the bartender who was running the music from an iPod. Amazingly, she had most of the songs he asked for, except "Bohemian Rhapsody." He was totally bummed at the lack of Queen, so I swiftly produced my iPod, which does contain "Bohemian Rhapsody." "You're my hero!" he said as he ran over to the bartender, who played the song right then and there. Seriously, she was way nicer than she needed to be.

I started thinking that maybe we've come to throw around a lot of words too casually, "hero" among them. Then again, maybe different people have different expectations for their heroes. Some people want a savior, some want someone to look up to or rely on and some people just really want to hear "Bohemian Rhapsody." Either way it feels good to help out a friend (or near total stranger) in need.