Some Of My Everyday Heroes

It is late and very quiet outside, which is a good thing I suppose, and I am winding down the day here at the computer. Earlier today I had lunch with Mike and our Dad (our step-mother was home sick from some flu bug) and it has been, all told, a very good day.

Lunch was relatively calm. Mike was not quite as manic as he has been over the past few days, although still very "off-the-wall" as a result of not taking his meds. So, while Mike went to have a smoke (and a chat with his rather ethereal companions) Dad and I had a chance to talk a little. It was really an interesting conversation in that, since I am now taking a military history master's level course, many of Dad's tales of life and work in the Air Force have taken on a new signifigance for me. We were discussing the difference between genuine heroes and those individuals who merely want to be heroes that usually end up costing others more than it is worth in order to build themselves up. Dad referred to it as the "Audie Murphy " complex and said that it was the difference between heroes and "damned-heroes," a phrase employed to describe the self-interested so-and-so's whose primary interest was/is in being seen as being what they, intrinsically, are not, which are the types of people who are the real heroes. Anyway, I found the conversation and the concepts, personality-types, etc. very interesting.

Schmoo (aka "Mottle") is sitting to one side of me lashing her tail around just enough to let me know she is displeased with me for not protecting her from medicine time and Bootsie. I know she will forgive me soon enough, but it is going to be rough because Bootsie is presently incarcerated in the room she considers her own private sanctuary and this is adding to her ire. She will feel better after we get to have a major snuggle and purr session later on. It is really very special and relaxing to fall asleep to the sounds of happy purring coming from a cat who just loves to be loved. When we adopted Mottle she had just finished raising a litter of kittens and, according to the head of the shelter we got her from, had not had a very happy life up until then. I wish I could show you pictures of her the first night we had her home. She was so thrilled at being with us she actually did an ecstatic little somersault as I let her on the bed and petted her. She has been a joy and a trial - in the way of all pets and children - from that day forth and we could not possibly think of life without our youngest "baby." It really bothers me that so many people want kittens and will not even consider adopting an older kitty. We have had both and the love and gratitude from the older adoptees is just as special and precious as the love from a pussy cat raised from kitten-hood in the same home. There are a lot of wonderful cats out there who would be so grateful for a good home and even a little love; they have so much love to give in return, too!

My nephew has just emailed me a paper he wrote for proof reading. He is a really great kid and I am so proud of him I could just about pop. He has had a lot of difficulties in his relatively short life and he is overcoming them one by one and I am proud that he is doing this, and doing it to the best of his ability. I just hope everyone he meets is able to come to this same realization, too. In fact, I am tempted to not correct anything in his paper, as it reflects his true nature more accurately untouched, than I could possibly convey by "cleaning" it up for him. I'll have to think about how to do this and then proceed delicately. And to think, he is asking his fat old auntie for help!

I have to email his mother now, and let her know how very proud I am of her son; my nephew. I am looking forward to helping him get this paper whipped into shape and finished in time to hand in. (Happy auntie tears are also about to happen, so I need to sign off.)

I hope everyone reading this has gotten to feel, or will feel at some point, this way about someone they love, too.