"Can You Say Hero?" Mister Rogers & Judas

I'm excited--I got a referral yesterday to a therapist who seems like she might be a good fit. She's in her 50s, grew up in Argentina, studied English Translation for her undergrad, AND she has an MBA in nonprofits!

Funny coincidence, the same day I'd brought home from the thrift store a book about Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges* by his English-language translator, Norman Thomas di Giovanni.
But the therapist's experience in nonprofits feels more pertinent, since a lot of my distress comes from my workplace.
I bet a lot of my stress is common to nonprofits--people (like me and the management) go into them with high ideals and low business competency.

I emailed the therapist saying I'd like to be better equipped for dealing with the human cruelty and human desperation I see up close and personal at work (and elsewhere).

Is that even possible, to be better equipped?

Of course it is. Not to vanquish cruelty, but to find ways and means to stay in the work without losing your mind.
Or, to lose your mind and to stay and work (well) anyway?

Push the Reset Button

Recently I've been glitching and sparking like some sort of electronic machine gone haywire. Sometimes the thing to do, in that case, is to push the reset button, or to un- and replug the thing.
(I read that a lot of repair people answering calls for malfunctioning machines do simply that.)

I've mentioned the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019--one of the last movies I saw in a theater before Covid).
It's based on the story of a real journalist doing a piece on Mister Rogers for Esquire magazine.

The article "Can You Say Hero?" by Tom Junot (1998) is behind a paywall, but I found a PDF of it from Lake Harbor United Methodist Church, in Michigan:
lakeharborumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Can-You-Say-Hero-by-Tom-Junod.pdf

Reading the article (and remembering the movie, which I've seen twice) pushed my reset button--calmed me down and reminded me of who I am, at heart.
I won't pull a quote from it because it's really of a piece.

The final question in the Book Reading Questionairre I posted this morning asks who your literary heroes are.
What's a hero, I wondered.

This article touches on the question of what's a hero, but even more, the question that pulls it together is, What is grace?

___________________________

* Judas, the Hero

I forgot when I was filling out the book questionairre,
Borges wrote a short story/essay that challenged my thinking (one of the questions):
"Three Version of Judas", included in the Borges collection Ficciones. I'll add it.
It is a review of three scholarly books about Jesus & his betrayer, Judas--three books that do not exist.

Summary from Wikipedia:

The [fictitious] author Runeberg comes up with the argument that as God in human shape would be "made totally man, but man to the point of iniquity", committing a sin would also not be beyond Him.

More importantly, Runeberg states that a sacrifice limited to only one afternoon on the cross does not compare with the sacrifice of accepting shame and revulsion for the rest of history.
Thereby, Runeberg concludes finally that He, God, chose Judas as his incarnation:

"God became a man completely, a man to the point of infamy, a man to the point of being reprehensible - all the way to the abyss.
In order to save us, He could have chosen any of the destinies which together weave the uncertain web of history; He could have been Alexander, or Pythagoras, or Rurik, or Jesus;
He chose an infamous destiny: He was Judas."

[end Wiki/Borges quote]

Ha. There's a hero. The biggest loser for the greatest gain.