My Heroes Have Scars

by Neil Cotter
(Brick, New Jersey)

At the behest of a fellow head banger I'm posting something I wrote. I write a lot. It's one way I deal with being alone so much and all of the things bouncing around in my head.

Sometimes I have no memory of writing the things I write and when something pops into my head and I get it down on paper I refer to it as herding butterflies. This was a round up that actually started as a response to a comment made by an accident victim that thought Michael Jordan was inspirational in his recovery. It's called, "My Heroes Have Scars" It's not published but it has been read by thousands of people. The idea is you don't have to be a multimillion dollar basketball star to inspire somebody. You just need guts.

My Heroes Have Scars
By Neil Cotter

My heroes have scars. Not from fights to the death with costume clad evil villains but from life, and all it's terrible unpredictability. Can they leap tall buildings in a single bound or stop a train in its tracks? No, and most of them would laugh and shake their head while calculating the injuries and recovery time associated with such nonsense.

My heroes have scars and they're little or no fault of their own. They didn't get them by choice but rather by chance. They've all been on the losing end of a roll of the dice. A dark moment in time in the middle of an otherwise unimportant day that changed the rest of their lives forever, but that isn't even the reason there are heroes.

What makes them heroes is the ability to get back up, dust themselves off and keep going. Even more than that, they shine a light through some dark passages for those of us who would follow. They take the hard roads first, proving it CAN be done. They will show you HOW it can be done with what you have left. They will stand behind you, ready to catch you if you should fall. They will be along side you shouting, not whispering, encouragement for you to keep going. And they will always wait for you, no matter how long it takes. And when you are strong, they will show you what to do with that strength. They will show you how you should do it; by the way they did it. They will show you how they live the rest of their days with what they have, rather then what they had.

The journey is not free but it will not cost you a cent. It is paid for in sweat and tears. Goals that may seem impossible at times, become more real with each drop of sweat that burns your eyes or each tear that rolls across your cheek, but you will come to welcome them because they are tangible proof of payment for your goals.

In days to come you will speak less and less of things you can no longer do, and you will speak more and more of things you once only dreamed of.

When you are well; when the pain begins to subside, when you've taken back what is yours, all or in part; you will have new friends, new brothers and new sisters. You will tell others of these people; of what they meant to you. You will refer to them as "my heroes" not because they have capes or because they have super powers but because, they have scars.

Dedicated to Ruben, Red, Brittany, Paul and Laura