It seems that lately we have been inundated with stories of heroes, both on television and at the movie theater. Spiderman 3, Ghost Rider and Superman Returns were huge hits. And lets not forget the X-Men and the Transformers.

On TV we have several popular series on heroes: Heroes, the 4400, Smallville and Supernatural. And children’s programming is filled with heroic characters: Spy Kids, The Incredibles, Zoom, Sky High, Danny Phantom, The Power Rangers, The Rescue Heroes, The Transformers and Digimon.

Is this fascination with heroes a recent one? Not at all… In fact Superman has been around since 1938 when he was first known as the man of steel. Spiderman was born in 1962, and The X-Men were first published in comic-book form in 1963. In 1968 the lesser known (but still powerful) Iron Giant came into being to help a little boy named Hogarth Hughes.

And even older legends tell of some of the most famous heroes of all – Achilles, who fought bravely to rescue Helen of Troy (or perhaps you are a Hector fan, and saw Hector as the hero, rescuing Helen from a husband she could not love). There was King Arthur and Lancelot, Hercules and Perseus (who killed Medusa) and the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

More modern day mythic heroes include characters from Lord of the Rings; King Aragorn, Legolas of the Woodland Realm and Gimli the Dwarf.

But heroes have not always come in such big, glamorous packages as Superman or King Aragorn. Let’s not forget Jimmy Olson, the photographer, only too human, yet still willing to take big chances. Or the hobbits, the wee folk, who also set out to fulfill a destiny which inadvertently made them heroes.

People throughout the ages have longed for heroes, both big and small. And this is understandable; sometimes life can get so scary and overwhelming that it seems that only a hero could possibly make a difference. But true heroes are our family, friends and acquaintances. Is a doctor who sets a broken bone not a hero? Or how about a friend who clears your computer of a nasty virus or sends you badly needed html coding? What about the babysitter who comes through for you at the last moment? The policemen and firemen who work so hard to keep our communities safe. And heroic organizations such as the Red Cross, Greenpeace and the Humane Society.

Folklore about heroes exists because of our need for heroes. But in the end, it’s not Superman who comes to save the day, it’s a regular person with a regular job with regular problems. Heroes exist because the human condition seems to perpetuate darkness, and we have to remind ourselves that all darkness is just a passing thing, and that the sun will shine again.

In the immortal words of Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings….

”It’s like in the great stories, the ones that really matter, full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I do understand. I know now; folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t, they kept going because they were holding on to something…. That there is some good in this world and it’s worth fighting for.”