The song that annoys me most has a catchy tune that I usually can’t get out of my head – but the lyrics infuriate me. The chorus tells a young soldier not to be a hero. Some practical advice about keeping his head low and a plea for him to return – not objectionable on their own. What woman doesn’t want her husband-to-be to return safely?
The annoying part is she is so STUPID. She understands him enough to know that he’s driven to be a hero – but not well enough to understand why. Is he some glory hound? If so, he’s probably a jerk in other ways – so why is she waiting for him at all? If not, what’s really driving him? Patriotism? Love? Honor? Concern? Some combination of all of them or something else entirely? We’re never told – but she clearly knows yet all she does is tell him not to do the thing she knows drives him.
Might as well tell him to not eat or drink, or breathe. There’s something in him that isn’t going to let him sit back and let the other guy take all the risks. She knows this – but she doesn’t understand him.
Had he come home, it wouldn’t have been as the same man who left. Betraying himself might have kept him alive but it wouldn’t have kept him whole.
I think a lot of us feel that conflict now. We don’t want to risk losing social media accounts – or even jobs – so we don’t say anything. Or we do, but something mild – and then we feel like we’re chickening out. Some of us just stay silent – but a lot post/say just enough to assuage the angst like the soldier poking his gun above the foxhole and shooting blindly, just to immediately duck back down. And there are those who just post anyway – and we wonder about their sanity while kinda wishing we were the same kind of insane.
Cowards aren’t the guys that feel fear – all humans do that. Cowards are the ones that let their fear run their lives.
The girl in the song is a coward. It’s easy enough to tell him to keep his head low and come back, no matter what but it’s hard to face the fear that he will be the man she fell in love with – and it will cost him his life. She’s not sophisticated and just anti-war – she’s just afraid and unwilling to face her own fear. She sends him off with an impossible mission – be untrue to himself and come back – because of her fear. She knows better – she knows him – but she can’t face it. She never does.
We see her hero’s journey – not his. She loses not only her love but a part of herself in her failed journey. She throws the letter away – the letter that informs her that he was the hero she’d always known him to be and that he would never be coming home. She loses her way and her best friend to her fear and all that’s left is regret. Unable to even face that, she rids herself of the last material thing that reminds her.
We never know her name – but we never forget his.
Do we want to be the nameless girl who can’t face her fear – and let’s be clear, her fear is real and understandable – but ultimately, fear is a poor master. So do we want to be her, never posting anything controversial, never speaking out, never letting our voices be heard – forever keeping our heads lower than the political sand?
Or do we want to be him? True to himself even when it costs him the girl he loves and finally his life. We don’t want the consequences – neither does he. But do we want the consequences of doing nothing in the face of evil?
Billy chose to do something in the face of evil. It’s why we know his name – it’s what makes him great. And he’d have been just as great had he come home from the war having taken and survived that fateful mission. He wouldn’t have been had he merely kept his head low and betrayed himself – and he wouldn’t have even come home the same man.
She’d have been a hero as well, had she been able to overcome her fear and say ‘Billy, go be a hero, but come back to me’ instead.
What about you?
