Today is SUPERHEROE day

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles
Superman

Yes, today 28th of April is international superheroe day!

It was April 1995 when Marvel employees went out to ask children which superpowers they would love to have. Can you imagine that? I am not sure about how it happened, yet I love to imagine some business-man and woman wearing suit-and-tie, ready to switch for a hidden tight-spandex with the underwear on the outside… and that tiny blonde kid with an innocent yet sneaky look approaching and saying, hey, why is your underwear actually outside of your clothes? After a few laughs and some wondering gazes still in awe for not being sure about the authenticity of that Spiderman in front of them, they start replying… Flying! I want to fly! I want to make my bed by pointing at it with my index! I wanna do homework just by putting two fingers on each side of my head and closing my eyes strongly! I want to run as fast as I can! Now that I think of it… which super-power would you like to have? I’d love to fly and to teleport… sounds too cool!

It was funny though when they were asked about their favorite superheroes, as most did not wear any tights with visible underpants. The vast majority looked like normal people. Just someone in their lives who shows up to solve a problem when threats arise. Their uniforms where not as tight. They would wear police badges, fireman’s hoses, a teacher’s smile, a doctor’s stethoscope, or a mum or dad’s helping hand.

Heroes are made by the path they choose, not the powers they are graced with
Iron Man

This is where we all come in, comforting a stranger, sharing our belongings -even giving them away-, cooking for someone, helping them with their tasks… it is on the daily decisions that we can all be superheroes in our everyday lives. When someone should do something, we should double-check what we can really do to be that someone.

A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended
Ben Affleck

These days are full of chaos. They call it quarantine. I made up a new word, cinquantine© (TM), cause it’s definitely been over forty days, and it will be fifty in a few more. A virus «suddenly» spread little by little and quite quickly, all over the World. Countries have been shut-down, yet proper resources not fully provided everywhere. Conspiracies on why this is happening rise, some which sound very convincing. Professionals of the same field swear the virus has been created, while others state that a virus -as life- cannot be created from nothing. Politicians state different truths, yet many confine us all to our homes, or wherever the virus caught us. In fact, several countries have been affected by indefinite restrictions, freedoms being cut, and new laws being implanted, creating a vibe of communism to which citizens respond with revelry, anger, and the calmest, frustration. Masks become a must in many countries since moment zero (where the number of cases is neither high or growing too quickly) yet in other countries, governors still insist that they are not really necessary. Media gives hundreds of different and opposite versions of the same one thing, contradicting each other and even themselves. TV programs, facebook pages, and twitter accounts get mysteriously banned after sharing certain information. Phones are controlled. Communication is controlled. Approach with others is controlled. Physical closeness to our beloved ones is controlled. A document named ID2020 shows even more control. Maybe this post will also be controlled. Sounds too crazy. Yet it is all real. Chaos.

It is also sadly real that hundreds of thousands of people have died of covid within the past about two months. And millions are ill, with this and other illnesses. People are still getting, treating and dealing with cancer, leukemia, fibromyalgia, heart attacks, panic attacks, anxiety (which is obviously raising)… Other people are losing control, setting up bombs in medical centers, going to the streets with swords, jumping off balconies because they do not know how to deal with this uncertain, chaotic situation. Mental and physical health is at risk.

Amidst all of this though, we find immense beauty

Hundreds of thousands of people find hope, peace and balance, and use their inner strength and seemingly infinite love to help others. From anonymous people to famous artists (please stop hating them just because they have mansions or found out how to make an immense revenue before you and I did), people are making funny videos to make others laugh, creating challenges to keep each other entertained and looking for little big steps to take towards some specific goals. Some are donating tons of money for the cause, and some are making masks for their families and their neighbors. Some are offering cheaper plans for the phones, giving free advice on the internet, preparing yoga or home-sports routines -and for free-, checking up on the neighbors, helping the elderly, going shopping for others, singing songs or dancing in the balconies. WE ARE BIG INDIVIDUALS, WE ARE BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEINGS. We are little-big heroes winning a battle that we didn’t want to fight. Yet we are armed with big resources, incredible minds and unbelievably beautiful hearts.

And today is superhero day

Illustration by Davinia Hernández – «and now, forever courageous»

Today is my brother’s day, my cousin’s day, and my best friend’s day. Today is my other friend’s day, my cousin’s friend’s day and my blogger-friend’s day. Today is every nurse’s day. Every single day since the 13th of March, we are going out to our balconies at 7pm to clap to the healthcare personnel and first-line workers. And we do this because we acknowledge and recognize that they are risking their lives for us. They wake up everyday knowing that they will go to work during a pandemic, and will be in direct contact with the virus. They will be wearing protective material. Material which may actually not protect them, and may once again be discarded because it is of such bad quality that the virus gets through. And they know they will not be provided with as much and as good material as they need – to help them to help us. So they will learn new techniques on how to sanitize their used materials, cause they will have to reuse them. And they will get frustrated, as they know they should only use that material once and discard it. Yet they will wear it, for they still have patients, the covid and the non-covid ones. And with scarce resources, they do their best. And they know they may not get their vacation this year, and that they are working double and triple shifts and not being compensated, with low salaries, inadequate material and lack of proper facilities. And then, they go home to their families, to be mindful of every decision to avoid putting their own at risk. Or they will be alone, as many have decided to isolate themselves to keep their beloved ones safe.

And do you know what is the best of it all? They LOVE their job. They do this TO HELP, to make it better, to help US better. And they do not complain, search for likes or fame or even recognition. When they go home, they rest to charge their batteries and do more tomorrow.

That’s why today is their day.

We have not been clapping for forty-five days for nothing. We have not been clapping for any political party or team whatsoever. We have not been clapping because anyone told us to or because of some «randomly chosen» figure. We are not even clapping because it’s fun. We are clapping with a responsibility, and we will clap with a responsibility. We will clap to thank our first-line workers, to recognize their job, to demand better means and better government decisions which favor them; we will clap to remind each-other that it is our responsibility to support them and not be selfish as we gain our freedoms and rights back, because behind it all, it is them who are in the literal first line of the battle, with all that it implies, for you and for me. And whenever the clapping is over and the cinquentine is done and the virus gone, let’s still support them and have enough memory to remember their lives, their jobs and their rights. Have your heart moved for longer than a second.