Don't be a Hero

They say the average life expectancy of a 1st Assistant Director is 54 years old
But Grips
are expendable

You are a hammer
A tool to be wielded by hands that haven’t seen a callus in years
We break and are replaced

Don’t be a hero, they tell me
Don’t wander off the beaten path
The one less taken is suicide
Just stay in line
Don’t fuck around
Don’t waste my time
We are working
Just keep your head down
And your mouth shut
And you might get paid

Don’t be a hero
The tallest blade of grass gets cut down first,
Do not disobey
Initiative should not be taken
It is not encouraged
Get some brown on your nose
And move slowly

We don’t need heroes
Not the Knight in shining armor
Not the song by Bonnie Tyler
Not the TV series
Heroes
are a Myth
They don’t exist
Everything you were ever taught of hard work was all for naught
Just do your job
Obey commands
Hurry up and wait
Get down on all fours and we’ll tell you when to breathe

This, from friends with good intentions, is the hardest jagged suppository to swallow
That doing anything inventive
is liable to get you fired
That offering a creative solution
is a serious problem

That the shadow I tried to leave behind by feeding my mind
Is breathing down my neck
My employers want an Animal
A beast with opposable thumbs
That can lift, run, climb, and tie anything

I’m not gonna lie

I want my Conan moment
I wanna rip the horn off an Evil God
And shove a blade between his eyes
I wanna lop the head off a Sorcerer
And send it rolling to his followers

I want the Ball, Coach
Game’s on the line
No time left
I want it
But not at the cost of my body and soul

I am told
That the film industry will chew me up and spit me out
I’m half cooked chicken
Equipped with the corn starch to make the gravy thicken
I’m proactive like a Lion in a China shop
Cause after the bull’s done breaking everything,
It won’t eat all the customers

I always forget to remember to be afraid of the consequences
But I will not go quietly into the night
I broke out of my cage ages ago
And so long as there is breath in my veins,
I will not be sent back to that school of thought nor its barred windows

The world needs Heroes
Not the Knight in Shining armor
Not the song by Bonnie Tyler
Not the TV series

We need Teachers
Coaches
Mentors
Activists
Artists
Because without this thing
This sharing of one so that others may have
The world becomes bleak

without laughter of youth
Without the giggles of their own experiments come to life
Of achievement
Of success
Of unconventional thinking being the exact key necessary to be in tune with the solution
Without that,
The silence is deafening

I wanna be a Hero
I wanna heal my people from a crippling methamphetamine epidemic
I wanna shape the mind of the first Native Hawaiian President
I wanna pull the islands out of rising water levels

I choose to be a Hero
Because all that is necessary for the forces of Evil to conquer the world
Is for a few Good people
To do Nothing