The Battle of Mind and Passion (revised at 4 AM...soo I'll edit it later. haha)

While racing home upon the foam of ocean down below,

two captains share a single ship and on it they must go.

The first steers hard, the other's sparred; the helm's pulled to and fro.

A captain red, a captain blue, upon the sea they go.

Their ship it be a'sailing free across the ocean vast.

And all the while the captains are a'warring near the mast.

The ship a'tossed, the captains lost, the time for peace has past.

A captain red, a captain blue, assailing near the mast.

The man of blue, whom always knew the wildly ways of red,

held up his hands to bid him, "Cease!" or else they'd both be dead.

Their powers clash, their tempers flash, his plea unseen by red.

A captain red, a captain blue, whom always rue the dead

Unsheathing swords they're leaping boards and swearing as they chide.

Each hopes to land the other with a flesh wound in the side.

The helm unmanned, the crew disband, the ship floats with the tide

A captain red, a captain blue, are leaping near the side.

A gentle man, the bluish man; a thinker stark and true.

Maliciously the other has a'run this fellow through.

The sea's received, the man aggrieved, the gentle man in blue.

A captain red, a captain blue, the bluish man run through.

The red man lives and from him gives both passions wild and free

to every man he's come across; and that means you and me.

In every man are captains strong; both blue and red they be.

Control the two, the red and blue, and then you can be free.

My rough draft introduction to, Defining a Hero.

Today I would like to ask the question, "What is it that makes a man a hero?" Is it his actions, his words, his deeds? If so, who determines which actions, words, or deeds are to be considered good? To one man a certain action may be good, whereas to another it may be perilous. For example, if an American soldier had subdued Hitler and consequently ended the war, the Allied forces (America, Britain, etc.) would have hailed him as a hero, whereas the Axis (Germany, Japan, etc.) may have considered this man the world's greatest villain. This is because of cultural perspective. A group of men will call a man a hero if he can uphold the standards and values of the society to an extent that others would or could not be able to do in the same situation. Although this may be an accurate description of a hero, it seems insufficient. His actions may be out of the reach of the ordinary man, but does he merit the title of hero? To be considered a hero, it seems that he must exemplify some sort of self-sacrifice. The man in the example is considered a hero to the Americans not because he was lucky and therefore able to end the war, but put his life in harms way in order to save millions of lives. This self-sacrifice causes him to stand out against other men as a hero. However, he is only a hero to those who share his worldview. Great men are defined in history by the stronger society. If this is true, then heroes are subject to the worldview or moral values of the strongest culture. However, one must ask if this is always the case. Is heroism a relative definition determined by each culture individually or are there objective cross-cultural qualifications that define it?