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SofaGeorge
New member
I posted this on the CHAT & CONVERSATION board, but I am cross posting it her because I really think women's answers are going to be the most interesting. I know that in my life the greatest experience I ever had was watching my wife find the heroic in herself.
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The time when YOU were someone's hero...
Someone posted a thread on the CHAT & CONVERSATION BOARD. The topic was to tell about the fight you lost. There were some really interesting responses, but I noticed most specifically that there were no responses at all from the women on the board. Hopefully this means that none of teh women here ever got in a stupid fight and got their ass kicked for it like a bunch of the guys did. But what this brought to mind for me was not the fight that was lost but the fight that was won. In each of us there was a time we had to reach deep inside ourself and find the courage to stand up to an impossible foe. It might have been a fist fight in a bar... it might have been dealing with a bullying boss... or even rescuing a stray dog on a highway as the cars sped all around you.
What was the moment you were someone's hero? (And women, please answer.)
For me I think it was a very odd time. I have a lot of stories that I think I could pull on, but the one that stands out the most is about a guy named Spider. Spider was a big street rat transient. He lived underneath the Santa Monica Pier and I guess he could basically be described as homicide with nothing to lose. I play chess regularly at the Santa Monica Chess Park... which is right next to the Pier. Spider had the habit of liking to come through the chess park and just intimidate the crap out of anyone that was there. He was a big guy... mean and muscular... and definitelty the 'mean' was the defining aspect of his personality. Mostly the people who go to the chess park are an older crowd... sweet quiet old men and women who are mostly retired and just looking for the social contact that hanging out playing chess on the beach brings. I had seen Spider come sweeping through the park a couple times... eyes blazing death... daring anyone to even talk back to him. He was just a total explosive dickhead. A couple of the old guys warned me to "...be careful..." There were stories that Spider pulled a knife a couple times... and the police still didn't do anything about him. About the third time I saw Spider coming towards the park... I had sort of made up my mind that I was not going to be part of his intimidation game. He had a wierd way of siddling up to people... pressing in... sort of daring them to react. For whatever reason... this day... Spider came right up to me ... riding his bike... while I was watching a friend play chess. He put his arm around me and said, "Hey holm boy, what's happening." About that fast I grab him off his bike and flipped him into the table. I put him into the table HARD. I told him, "You worthless piece of S--t. Don't ever touch me." I was just about to hit him... when the wierdest thing happened. He started to cry. He said, "Man, don't hurt me. You don't have no reason to hurt me." It was not a reaction I expected. I told him he made it a habit of coming down here and trying to intimidate the old people. It was over. He wasn't coming back again. He wasn't intimidating anyone here again. He just kept crying and saying he wouldn't hurt anybody... just don't hit him again. Then he left on his bicycle and we never saw him again.
The rest of that day all the old guys at the park... well... for the first time in a long time... they just sat there and giggled... and they felt safe. It was sort of like the big bully monster was gone... and true enough he never did come back. and to this day the chess park guys still talk about the day we got rid of Spider.
So what is the time you stood up for yourself or someone else and became a small town hero?
***********************
The time when YOU were someone's hero...
Someone posted a thread on the CHAT & CONVERSATION BOARD. The topic was to tell about the fight you lost. There were some really interesting responses, but I noticed most specifically that there were no responses at all from the women on the board. Hopefully this means that none of teh women here ever got in a stupid fight and got their ass kicked for it like a bunch of the guys did. But what this brought to mind for me was not the fight that was lost but the fight that was won. In each of us there was a time we had to reach deep inside ourself and find the courage to stand up to an impossible foe. It might have been a fist fight in a bar... it might have been dealing with a bullying boss... or even rescuing a stray dog on a highway as the cars sped all around you.
What was the moment you were someone's hero? (And women, please answer.)
For me I think it was a very odd time. I have a lot of stories that I think I could pull on, but the one that stands out the most is about a guy named Spider. Spider was a big street rat transient. He lived underneath the Santa Monica Pier and I guess he could basically be described as homicide with nothing to lose. I play chess regularly at the Santa Monica Chess Park... which is right next to the Pier. Spider had the habit of liking to come through the chess park and just intimidate the crap out of anyone that was there. He was a big guy... mean and muscular... and definitelty the 'mean' was the defining aspect of his personality. Mostly the people who go to the chess park are an older crowd... sweet quiet old men and women who are mostly retired and just looking for the social contact that hanging out playing chess on the beach brings. I had seen Spider come sweeping through the park a couple times... eyes blazing death... daring anyone to even talk back to him. He was just a total explosive dickhead. A couple of the old guys warned me to "...be careful..." There were stories that Spider pulled a knife a couple times... and the police still didn't do anything about him. About the third time I saw Spider coming towards the park... I had sort of made up my mind that I was not going to be part of his intimidation game. He had a wierd way of siddling up to people... pressing in... sort of daring them to react. For whatever reason... this day... Spider came right up to me ... riding his bike... while I was watching a friend play chess. He put his arm around me and said, "Hey holm boy, what's happening." About that fast I grab him off his bike and flipped him into the table. I put him into the table HARD. I told him, "You worthless piece of S--t. Don't ever touch me." I was just about to hit him... when the wierdest thing happened. He started to cry. He said, "Man, don't hurt me. You don't have no reason to hurt me." It was not a reaction I expected. I told him he made it a habit of coming down here and trying to intimidate the old people. It was over. He wasn't coming back again. He wasn't intimidating anyone here again. He just kept crying and saying he wouldn't hurt anybody... just don't hit him again. Then he left on his bicycle and we never saw him again.
The rest of that day all the old guys at the park... well... for the first time in a long time... they just sat there and giggled... and they felt safe. It was sort of like the big bully monster was gone... and true enough he never did come back. and to this day the chess park guys still talk about the day we got rid of Spider.
So what is the time you stood up for yourself or someone else and became a small town hero?
