Better Hero’s

The Jack Reacher author, giving a description of how he writes short stories was very interesting. It was recorded in Colorado, 2024.

Short stories, likewise, were her dad’s forte. He could dramatize even the most simple of stories, and capture the essence of “the little guy” and the hero that lived within.

In the short story Filly had just finished listening to by Reacher, the narrator was in fact two people, but you do not know this until the end. The narrator says that for the police to lose (as in not solving the case), was for society to win, because the perp continues to kill the undesirables, as in the TV show Dexter.

Filly thought that this dichotomy was a bit bewildering. Her dad had always said that how a person acted in their private life could not be separated from their public life. Someone who murdered people at night, could not legitimately be a police man or detective during the day. At least that was what Filly thought, unless they had a network of screens to cover their dichotomy.

Her thought was this…if such random killing, as described by Reacher, was successful at making society free of evil, then why was evil still so rampant.

Filly appreciated that there were people who wanted to solve the problem of evil people in the world, but secretly killing them, because they caused bad circumstances for people, was not freeing the world to be a better place. It was causing the world to be enmeshed in evil.

Filly thought about a handful of the short stories that her dad had shared or dramatized or read with her at one time or another.
The little match girl
Holly and Ivy
Gungadin
The trumpeter of Krakow
The steadfast tin soldier

Her dad did not originate these stories but he brought them to life by giving the main character a hero’s welcome with his storytelling abilities.
Filly thought that must be why so many kids liked Harry Potter. Because he was some kind of hero in his own right. But was a hero who had to use witchcraft worthy of the adoration of millions of children?

Filly’s dad’s hero’s were always caught in horrendous circumstances as well, like Harry Potter. The little match girl was cold, freezing actually, and trying to sell matches for her family. She was not treated well and she was miserable. But she never gave up, and she did not dwell on the circumstances of her life. Filly and her sisters mourned this pitiful child, and celebrated her ability to endure the harshest of circumstances without uttering a complaint as their dad shared her woeful story.

In the story Holly and Ivy, Holly had no parents and was left at an orphanage for the holidays. She did not cry and did not run away technically, she believed in a better life for herself and went looking for it. She was the hero of her own story.

Gungadin was a water boy and was vastly unappreciated and yet he never stopped being of service to his fellow soldiers. He brought water and did it cheerfully whenever he was called, and his bony caricature was always seen running across the dusty road.

The trumpeter of Krakow was shot, and the little tin soldier was melted in the fire, but neither changed who they were or stooped to do evil to combat their circumstances. Each one of these characters was to be an ordinary hero.

Filly thought about the people today who claimed to find themselves in dire circumstances thinking that they were in the wrong gender body. Her dad would, in such a case turn again to the stories of his ordinary hero’s, people who lived nondescript lives but who never failed to do what was right, who bore the difficulties of their circumstances without complaining, even when it cost them everything. The key was to pay attention to helping others, and taking steps to do good, in spite of difficulties.

Reacher was a hero to many. People wanted to believe that someone somewhere was going to take action against evil. But even better than that, Filly thought, was her dad’s behavior and belief, to be the kind of person of integrity that would make each and every agency of the law, and society itself, align with God, good. People who did evil needed to be tried by a jury of their peers, and needed to have consequences. But rogue evil, to repay rogue evil, only created more evil. That was what Filly thought and what her dad had demonstrated.

The police chief who doubles as a serial killer, should not exist in one nation under God.

Filly looked at the calendar. Someone wanted to “entertain” the neighborhood kids and play “nightmare before Christmas” for the holidays.

It’s not that the movie was horrible, it’s just that it did not provide hero’s or joy or even the right thinking or attitude to help kids know how to deal with adversity constructively. Filly knew her dad would not call that entertainment.

In contrast to that movie, “The Miracle of 34th street” movie had a hero. The movie “Scrooge” had a hero. “Holly and Ivy” had several hero’s, and “It’s a wonderful life” had hero’s. Where were these stories that, in the past, gave so much “canvas” allowing the reader to “paint on with good thoughts”?

These were the kinds of thoughts that Filly turned about in the churn of her mind and her thinking, growing up with her mom, dad and four sisters, and the results were an incredibly journey of life that was focused on wanting to help society live better,as smooth and deliciously as butter. The best way to get started, she had figured out, was to pray, and read … short stories, especially like the ones in the bible…this was Filly’s randomly chosen bible verse for the dayl

And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.

6 And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying,

7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.

Filly felt like writing uplifting stories with attainable goals where people could become heroic, was indeed walking in the ways of the Lord. They could create new stories or…maybe plan an activity evening like Filly’s sister did, instead of sitting and watching a movie.

Her sister had supplied ribbons and flowers, glue and scissors, so attendees could make special gift tags for the holidays. An “activity based event” for kids might be a bit more labor intensive, but if it helps them learn to crave things that require personal action instead of expecting to be entertained, then that would be good. Filly thought the difference was palatable.

And back to the narration by the Jack Reacher author, from the very beginning… Filly remembered how he had chosen the name Reacher because his wife had said he could “reach” the things on the top shelf when shopping. But Filly thought that perhaps there was another way to look at the name. If that name, for example, meant that he was trying to “reach Her”, then he would have to do more than reach up to the top shelf, a place that gathered dust because so few people failed to arrive there. Getting to the top shelf required being uplifted or inspired, and those things came much more easily, Filly believed, from having better heroes.

No more names like Reacher, or Drifter or Sifter or Sleeper. Instead names like Runner, Thinker, Hiker, or Carry, that implied forward movement either literally or metaphysically. Each person, no matter how seemingly insignificant, had a role to play in the stage called the universe. Thats what she thought.