It’s embarrassing.  For eleven months of the year my travels are so extensive that I rarely turn on the television.  I completely lose track of popular culture.  When I do get home, and see some celebrity featured on a talk show, I turn to my wife and ask, “Who’s that?”  She looks at me like I have just stirred from a one year coma or been rescued from a remote island.  My ignorance of fame is particularly obvious when it comes to reality television stars.  I got nothing.  I was going to use an example from one of the Real Housewives as evidence of my ignorance, but I don’t know any of their names.  Plus, I am told that Real Housewives is no longer relevant.  My point made.

So perhaps it is my lifestyle that makes our culture’s adulation for fame and celebrity so foreign to me.  We sure do seem to place a high value on movie stars, musicians, viral videos, social media followers, and whatever the hell the Kardashians are.  And don’t get me wrong, some unabashed escapism has its value.  Hey, my lovely bride and I spent last Christmas eve watching Krampus with our kids. Don’t judge.  What makes it all curious to me is that these fantasy personas that so many people are fascinated by are not heroic.  They are not even real.  In fact, it has been my experience that the more a person craves attention, the more flaws they possess.  To me, the true heroes are the people who do what is necessary without adulation, without appreciation, without a spot on Good Morning America.

You know what is heroic?  Heroic is fighting life each and every day.  While life can certainly bring great joy – falling in love, the birth of a child, the laughter of a grandmother — the truth of the matter is that life is largely composed of a multitude of mundane, repetitive activities punctuated by alternate and equal amounts of fleeting bliss and pain.  Life is a slog.  Most of us wake up each morning facing a daunting list of responsibilities that we confront with a quiet determination and resiliency.  We work.  We pay bills.  We parent, work on relationships, and try to navigate a world of diverse personalities.  And just when we feel like we have found a winning formula, something unexpected – and often challenging – happens.  Life is a battle.

And amazingly, we fight it successfully.  We don’t give up, although we sometimes cry.  We take that gut punch and stagger backwards, only to jut out our chin and swing back.  We don’t get a place on the couch next to Jimmy Kimmel.  We don’t get an Oscar, an Emmy, or a Grammy.  We just do what must be done, every day, with our only reward being the knowledge that tomorrow we will do it again.  THAT is heroic.  That is worth celebrating.  So, this holiday season, celebrate the true hero.  Celebrate your battle.  Celebrate you.