It is unlikely that it will ever be necessary for me to single handedly save the world from an evil bad guy. But I’d like to think I could if I had to. I’d like to think that like Frodo Baggins, or Harry Potter, or Percy Jackson, I’d be up to the job.
In my world there are a lot of annoying, rude and irritating people, but none of them qualify as world destroying evil bad guys. Thus, I am finding world saving opportunities somewhat rare. Oh, certainly, I can help other people save the world. I can contribute to saving the world. But I have yet to be handed a ring of power or a working wand and even if I had, I haven’t run up against a sufficiently evil individual to use it on.
Maybe this is why my very favorite kind of hero is the unlikely hero. Frodo is a hobbit, Harry is a neglected orphan, and Percy has major attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These guys are the last to be picked to play volleyball in PE. They are viewed by the world as weak or pathetic or just damaged. That’s why I love them.
Those guys could be me.
In Mutant, my hero is a girl who is dying of cancer until she is cured…and finds the cure worse than the disease.
Arroon is an orphan who has been kicked out of a number of homes and schools.
These two can’t even keep their lives straight, never mind head out and kick some evil bad guy butt. Yet, they do kick butt.
That’s why I keep rooting for them, keep writing them, keep trying to pry the hero from beneath the surface.
Who is the most unlikely hero I’ve ever met?
Me.
And Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, Percy Jackson, and my own Miranda Baxter and Arroon Walker.
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An Unlikely Hero
Thursday, January 28th, 2010Lights On Water: Brazil
Monday, January 11th, 2010There is a beach in Brazil, nestled into the last remnants of the Atlantic rainforest, where you can walk at night for miles kicking the sand. Why would you want to kick the sand? On this beach, when you kick the sand it glows like tiny fireflies under your toes. I have been assured that this is a perfectly natural phenomena and, as you can imagine, it’s actually pretty wonderful.
We spent Christmas in Brazil with the Brazilian half of our family. In Brazil, Christmas takes place in the heat of the summer and is a time of summer vacations, swimming, and sweating. I soaked up the heat like a lizard in Nevada.
One night, in the interior city of Indiatuba, we all gathered around the family’s tiny swimming pool and gazed, mesmerized at a new device that sent flashes of colored lights careening through the water. I am more of a star gazer than an artificial light appreciator, but that moment wasn’t about the lights. It was about family. It was about having a reason to stand together and share a moment no one else will ever share.
I read a dozen books in Brazil. I shopped in tiny stores where the clothing and crafts were made by the store’s owners. I ate cheese bread and drank chilled coconut juice straight from the coconut. I watched my daughter learn to surf. I watched rain sheet down through layers of banana and palm leaves.
That was Brazil to me. Brief moments of simple joy and family.
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