Staff Editorial: One person's fall affects us all

This week's staff editorial in the Opelika Observer:

When the most revered among us stumble or falter, something within us makes us take pause and notice.
We’re taken aback. We wonder how such a thing could happen to such a person.
We become sad and disillusioned, finding out that our hero’s armor is perhaps not-so-shiny, the steed not-so-noble.
We hurt when those we put our faith in fall, but we can all share blame in the sadness we’re caused.
We have a dangerous tendency to mythologize our leaders, making them impervious to the problems the rest of us have and deal with in our lives.We then judge them by a more rigid standard when they falter.
The fact is they are people, just as we are.
Their mortality is as real as our own, their problems the same as ours.
There are no heroes, no glimmering golden gods sent from the heavens to give us mortals something to model ourselves after.
There is only humanity, flawed and imperfect.
We all fall short.
We all stumble and have moments where we are less than who or what we should be.
We all make mistakes, small and large.
Expecting absolute perfection from anyone is absurd and pointless. Perfection is not naturally occurring.
We do ourselves no favors by constructing these fantasies.
Eventually, reality will surface and we’ll see the marks and scars our hopes and wishes have hidden from our eyes.
The perfect hero or heroine is best left to the realms of literature and film, places where reality can be bent to the will of the writer for purposes of entertainment and enjoyment.
Rather than focus on finding perfect heroes in our world, we must turn our focus inward.
Instead of lifting up others onto pedestals from which they will ultimately topple, we must strive to live in ways that do no harm, a continuing plateau of normalcy.
No dizzying highs, no terrifying lows – just simple, no-frills everyday life.
If we can simply muster the strength to be better people, to be somebodies, that’s a start.
We can treat each other with civility and kindness.
We can stop ourselves from taking joy in the destruction and fall of others.
We must seek help when we need it, letting go of our pride and sense of self in order to let others’ love and wisdom reach us.
For that matter, we must do better about giving help to those in our lives who need it.
Rather than remain silent if we see a problem, we owe it to our friends and neighbors to point out inconsistencies and issues we notice.
We may tread a fine line between concerned friend and self-righteous twit, but action should generally be preferred to silence.
A bruised ego is better than an unchecked person hurdling toward self-destruction.
When action is deemed necessary, we must go directly to the individual at risk and their family rather than trumpet the problem’s symptoms publicly for everyone to hear.
No public good is served by delighting in the problems of prominent people; there is only hurt, sadness and pain.
Anyone who does take joy in seeing such failings should examine themselves and see the shortcomings and failures in their own life and then ask themselves if they would like their issues broadcast in such a fashion.
We think such a notion would be met with hesitance.
Falls and failures require recovery time.
In those times, we must remain pillars of support and encouragement, there to remind our friends of the great things of which they are capable.
They may no longer be flawless, but they never were to begin with and they never will be.
One fall should not destroy a legacy; one mistake should not destroy a life.
Love, support and encouragement – these are what we have to offer and these are what we should offer.
Show love. Stand with those who are going through rough times. Spur others around you to be and do better.
Then, and only then, will we possibly see a world where heroes are real and unimagined.