Heroic heroism in a real hero

Okay, up front, I know Richard Phillips well enough to punch him in the arm. Not that I will be able to get close enough to him in the next year to effect that sign of affection in the mano a mano sense. He is now TODAY show fodder. He’s frigged. He will be hounded by all the wrong people till he wishes he was back on that life boat having only to deal with bloody pirates.

As the world is about to find out, Richard is one funny dude. There is already talk about a movie and it is keen speculation as to who will play him with his great grin and Bawston aaccent. My brother T-Bone shot a video this past Christmas where Richard and his wife Andrea, also a hoot, are clowning around with friends from a Burlington bar. Take a not so exclusive look.

This is a great story. The hero places himself in the front of hostile forces with instructions to the crew of what to do. The crew itself has already acted bravely by grabbing and stabbing with an ice pick one of the pirates down in the 130 degree engine room. The stabee is then swapped for the Captain who has been, shall we say, “detained,” by the ruffians with AKs.

It is not clear at this writing as to what took place except that Richard was put aboard a 30 foot covered life boat with four of the Somalis and tried once to make a swim for it. Wisely considering that the bullets being fired at him might find their mark, he returned to the life boat and was held there four days while an anxious world looked on in dread. Perhaps not as anxious as Richard who had been seen with an AcK in his back during this time. I’m certain that would spoil my appetite even though I once faced down a BB gun when I was 12.

Richard is to the USA what Susan Boyle is to Scotland right now. The press will plump up and then pillory and then be conciliatory and finally fade away having put, as they almost always do, these and any other celebrities through the wringer. I actually saw an article trying to make Sully Sullenberg look like a jerk because the writer claimed he had safer choices than ditching his plane in the Hudson.

Though I’ve hung with Richard only sporadically over the last 20 years, and mostly at raucous occasions where alcohol was involved, I have the sense that he and Andrea will pull this off and come out smelling like a rose. She is an ER nurse with lots of personality and it is unlikely that she will be flabbergasted by all the hoopla and pushing and pulling. Just being married to her will afford him the fortitude he will likely need for the coming ordeal.

T-bone and I were speculating on who will play whom in the movie. Only Scarlett Johansson will do for madame, and we thought Billy Connelly, the profanely funny as hell Glaswegian, would be a good choice for Richard, except for the Scottish accent and a dozen years difference in age. (YouTube Connelly if you’re nae squeamish.) We had no thoughts on who might play the pirates and of course not much is known about their personalities as it would be hard to interview them now with there heads missing and all.

I think in this country we go on a bit too much with the hero business. The TV loves to use the word so they throw it around like so much rice at a wedding. But a hero is more than being in the right place at the right time, and yet you don’t have to be some muscley mythical god who led armies to conquer evil in the field of battle. A real hero chooses the right thing to do regardless of the costs to him or her self. They have the wit to assess a given situation and act in a manner that would produce the best possible outcome. That kind of action comes from within who we are. It would be hard to teach. If what we heard is true, that Richard made a command decision to put himself at risk to assure the safety of 19 others, he is a true hero and a rara avis. This is better than “the Captain goes down with his ship.” It feels good to know that kind of heroism is real.

A hero, in some cultures, is also a sandwich.