The New York breeze runs across my face and leaves all the skin it touches cold and prickly. It will be Christmas soon and its starting to show. Stores are decorated, people are walking the streets and families are getting ready for the holiday season. I pickup a newspaper and look at the headlines.
"Fireman saves elderly woman from burning apartment"
Most people look at things like this and admire the courage it takes to run into a burning building and pull out a woman. They feel safe living in a city where the firemen know their roles and their importance to society however small that may be. For the past few weeks I have been losing focus on the things that matter to me the most: love, dedication and my humanity. I was once asked by a friend why I am so lazy and don't show any initiative to mend the things that are broken in my life. I didn't have an answer that I could give at that time. I look at the newspaper again and feel sad for the fireman who had to pull the woman out. As humans we exhibit self-preservation and to run into a burning building is showing lack of that quality. However, if we didn't have fire (god forbid), then that fireman wouldn't have to risk his life and he wouldn't have a job. He doesn't need to run into a building, he has to. It may be for many reasons, his family has always been in the firefighting service, he couldn't get any other job, his parents made him feel inconsequential and now he's looking to gain approval from other people, the list goes on.
I will never have the fame that a picture on the front page of a newspaper gives these individuals. I have never wanted it nor have I craved it because it means that their job is only a means of getting somewhere and not something they have inculcated into the very blood that flows in their veins. No one needs to be a hero, they are just born that way. Seeking rewards should never be one anyone's mind and paying the men and women that do these jobs makes no sense either but in the end we are driven to these acts in some way by money.
I hear police sirens. Someone must be in trouble somewhere, this isn't going to be front page newspaper material, but no one has ever asked to take my picture for who I really am.
I drop the paper back in the stand and start running. When was the last time someone asked Peter Parker for this picture ...
Mood when writing this post - Damned if I know
Music listened to when writing this post - Silence
