Spiderman 2 and the Hero Complex

[ssurgul]

Huh.

I finally made another connection this evening, in my preparation work for watching Spidey 3 tonight.

One of the things that I hadn't realized about those who constantly strive to be 'on the outside', to 'live as a hero', to ... well to be better than who and what they are, what they're even remotely capable of.

They want the recognition of the sacrifice. They want to understand that it's actually worth it. They want someone to be able to point to and say, beyond ANY doubt, that they made a significant difference in someone's life. But then, of course, the human mind being what it is, even having that one person won't matter; after all, there's always reason to doubt or deny that reward. And in that is both their doom and their pleasure. After all, that means they'll always be driven to strive for more and better. But then, they'll never find any sort of positives no matter how many times they might normally have found that fulfillment.

It's time to accept that sometimes your dreams exceed your abilities, real and imagined. And to realize that by denying yourself the pleasure of your success, you're denying the rest of us the pleasure of knowing who you truly are. You're not just the sum of your acts.

Comments

dreams

[bellikose.livejournal.com]

But in acknowledging a dream as unobtainable, do we risk the dream itself? Do we stop believing in a dream once its threatened by reality? And are we better off reaching for something there's no chance of touching (but we remain hopeful), or living with the disappointment of broken hope before we've really tried to achieve a dream? Just thinking by keyboard here...

Re: dreams

[ssurgul.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I think dreams are what we 'can' and probably 'should' use to guide a lot of our actions. I dream of a world without money, wherein no one, and I mean NO ONE, is made lesser because they have enough morality or scruples to not want to fuck over their fellow men just to advance themselves, and where all are truly equal, with equal say, and with equal opportunity to grow into who and what they were destined to be.

Without the convenience of a massive supply of WMD's, that will always and forever be just a dream in my lifetime. But I hold on to it. But in so doing, I also bear in mind that it's JUST a dream. I strive to live my life as best I'm able toward that goal, to be the change I want to see, knowing full well it's probably counterproductive and stupid to do.

My purpose in writing this was not to say dreams shouldn't be pursued to the level possible. It was to say that when the dream becomes so overpowering, so all-encompassing, so controlling that when you can't achieve it, you threaten your own health and those around you, mentally and emotionally, that it becomes a danger. And too frequently, particularly of late, I see more and more and more folk tearing themselves up over how things 'should' be, rather than recoiling in horror over how things *are*. And they drag those closest to themselves down as they do so, simply because they 'know they were destined for better things'. Yeah. So say we all.

Re: dreams

[bellikose.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree... And I wasn't looking to start an argument, just a small debate ^_^

Makes me wonder where we get so confused on the reason FOR dreams. Sometimes it seems like there's a lot of pressure to achieve our dreams no matter what they are or risk being labeled a quitter. When did dreams become something that we're EXPECTED to live up to? Do you think that people have started using them as a standard? "If I can't make it then I'm a failure?"