A great many people worldwide have seen the final installment of the Avengers story arc by now, me being one of that group. Actually, I’ve seen it twice now in the theater, having this past weekend taken some of my family who hadn’t yet had the chance themselves. Both times I’ve enjoyed it deeply. People may have differences of opinion over treatments of the characters in the script or the fates of some of them, but for my time and money, I felt that the film was a complete tour-de-force and a fitting way to end the overall story. (I’m still sensitive to the concept of “spoiler alerts” and won’t go into detail.)
What really struck me is the truly human nature of the characters. They faced great loss, booming failures, and total defeat in the previous installment of the series in particular. Portrayals of how they compensated in the wake of their defeat were impressively human. Some soldiered on, some did not and retreated into insular lives and behaviors to cope as they could. The truly universal tragedy left behind was certainly more than people have to deal with in the real world, but sometimes real loss, regret, and defeat feels exactly like the universe has collapsed around a person at times.
Despite the emotional wounding of the heroes, they did bounce back, and eventually stopped giving up. I’d say that’s the prerequisite of a hero, be they a literary construct or a flesh-and-blood person – Do Not Give Up. The cosmos throws some damn devastating curveballs, heroes find a way to deal with them and throw them right back.
It struck me that while I cannot fly, and I’m not a billionaire genius philanthropist, or a green rage-monster, the universe essentially doesn’t care. I’m going to receive incoming challenges, whether I’m superhuman or I’m not. Either I’m going to deal with those issues, or I’m not. I’ll deal with them better if I make myself a superhero.
No, I’m not kidding.
At this point, my readers may be wondering if one those universal curveballs has hit me square in the noggin. Not really. I would say though that I’ve seen a lot of change in my life over my half-century thus far, and the negatives are something that I know deep-down that I haven’t addressed like a hero. In many instances, the real problem is that I didn’t address my challenges at all. I’ll not whine endlessly about it though; I’ll address them now. I’ve stopped giving up.
Of course, in the pages of an outer-space themed blog like Outbound, why even have this as a topic? It’s actually pretty simple: Self-Improvement of the Human race is the long-term goal, and it starts with each individual Human improving themselves first. And they have to do it FOR THEMSELVES. Trying to force others to improve is the path of the villain, as they believe they should make other people improve to their desires.
Going Outbound to our Solar System and beyond requires heroism. It specifically requires more intelligence, more physical resiliency, and frankly a more general disposition towards courage than is common in these pampered days in which we live. If we can’t increase our Earthly heroism, heroism beyond this planet is to remain a rare commodity indeed.
Not everyone is going to agree with me that the Outbound philosophy is the way to save the world. In the long-term, they’re wrong, and the long term will explain this eventually. We have many threats to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some are internally generated by the things we do or don’t do, and some are purely external and beyond our ability to mitigate. The only way to ensure the survival of the world is to accept two things:
- Clinging to the Earth as our only home ensures that a single event or connected chain of events WILL end Humanity someday.
- The Earth is only the beginning of our world, our world is the Universe itself.
Heroes save situations from ruin or rebuild against the devastation from ruin they were unable to prevent. Superheroes make it their business to save to world through daily heroism. I’m going to be a superhero.
Of course, I’d rather not be alone in this, and I’m going to share my circumstances and my improvement methodologies will all of you, in hopes to teach, and to inspire. My current dismal state should only make any improvement at all on my part both dramatic and humorous.
For next time, I’ll give you some high-level insight to the strengths and weaknesses I’ve already considered in myself, and an improvement plan I have started.
Until then, as the late great Stan Lee would say: Excelsior!