Heroes

The spate of suicide and suicide/murders which has taken place in Ireland over the past decade is truly frightening.These tragedies are running parallel with our increase in affluance due to the Celtic Tiger.The 'era'of the Celtic Tiger has brought about genuine and general significant improvement in the lives of all of us.Why then the increase in suicides?At this stage none of us would be arrogant or ignorant enough to say that we have the answer to this dilemma.
There are many people in our society who quietly and bravely get on with their lives despite being very unhappy because of substance abuse,clinical depression or simply hitting a down-spot in their lives.None of these causes are necessarily connected to affluance or lack of it.But in pre-Celtic Tiger days relations,friends and neighbours had more time to stop and notice the change in their demeanor.The over- burdened Health Service were able to provide a more hands-on service to those who were in physciatric care.

But there still are many heroes in our society who provide ongoing care and support for people who are being passed over by the rest of us .The Alone organisation for example and Meals-on Wheels are just two such groups.There are many others out there,who on an individual basis and in their own quiet way will stop to chat to a person who may look upset or lost .Just a smile or a nod or a brief handshake may be enough for a lonely proud person on the fringes of their own percieved despair to enable them to open-up and share their troubles.

When we think of heroes,we usually think of people such as (in my time anyway)those characters portrayed by John Wayne or Gary Cooper ,in the films,or the Super-Heroes.......Superman,Batman,Spiderman or Captain Marvel(by the way whatever happened to Captain Marvel ,Billy Batson,or the Great ''Shazam'' for that matter,all the others have been resurrected?)
Real heroes are with us all the time,we may not notice them because their motives are not social attention or material reward.They do not attract attention but are an invaluable asset in our society particularly now when materialism is at its peak...the surprising thing is that we can all become real heroes,without donning a cape or shouting a magic word...all we have to do to is to give a nod ,a smile or a handshake to someone we might have other wise passed by .....now what was I going to moan about today.........??/