On Becoming a Super - Part 11: Let Us Now Praise Everyday Superheroes
March 10, 2020

    In a world subject to entropy, the fact that any of us manage, ever, to create some order out of chaos borders on the miraculous.  That people manage, at all, to show up at their jobs, feed their kids and get them to school, and pay their bills (even if only some of them), can be heroic, in and of itself, considering how much energy (and courage) it takes just to keep entropy at bay in many circumstances.  Forget superhero-ing.  Just getting by, just keeping the lights on and some laundry  clean and the car running, requires a level of quiet heroism without which our society would simply unravel.

   So the fact that some people are able to help foster an order that goes beyond mere chaos containment, that extends outward beyond their immediate person and family, is evidence of grace at work in the world.  Make no mistake: all of us get by on grace all of the time.  We're all just like Tommy and Gina out here, halfway there and livin' on a prayer.  So the grace that sustains us can be difficult to see, because it is often simply keeping pace with the chaos, keeping our noses above water.  This is what grace does most of the time, no doubt, and we wouldn't ever see its effects above the water line without its steady presence buoying us up from below the surface.  

    So if someone is able to make or do something even more lovely and orderly than is required for mere survival, we should take special notice.  In such cases, we are bearing witness to extraordinary grace at work in the world, through a human conduit – a superhero, or a whole team of them.

    Let me tell you about a just few that I know.  There's the florist who teams up with his sister to collect and deliver personal hygiene products for hundreds of nursing home residents in our county every year at Christmas time.  There's the insurance agent who organizes teacher appreciation meals at my kids' elementary school.  There's the real estate agent who serves on the board of the Community Crisis Center because he knows that single parents, and poor families generally, need basic resources and people to help them get back up when life knocks them down.  There's the single mom who faithfully totes her laptop to her daughters' gymnastics sessions, softball practices, and Scouts meetings, so she can work on data entry while making sure her girls have valuable childhood experiences.  There's the high school Speech and Debate coach who buys a talented young debater a suit because his family can't afford one, and thus sets the stage for the young man's acceptance to an Ivy League college.  There's the local attorney who teaches that same young man to white water canoe, feeding a love of outdoor sport that will carry him far beyond the Ivy League.  There's the administrative assistant who serves on the local library board and volunteers during her lunch hour to read to 5th graders.  There's the pharmacist and photographer who team up in their "free time" to administer a teacher grant program for creative classroom projects, funded through the local education endowment.  There's the high school Student Council that collects donations to send an area student with a cancer diagnosis on the trip of a lifetime with her parents, through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  And there is the local environmental activist who recruits area students to assist with a community garden, delivers baked goods to workers at an asbestos remediation site, and leads groups on tours of a part of the county ravaged by decades of lead mining in the early and mid-20th century, in order to spark thought, conversation, and action toward living more earth-conscious and earth-friendly lives.

    There are so many more.  Many, many more.  Miracles abound.  Grace abounds.  Superheroes abound.  Everyday, they are wielding their superpowers and channeling grace all around us.  If you haven't already, join them.