The definition of a hero is someone who is “noted for courageous, sacrificial acts or nobility of character.”

That’s a pretty good definition. 

But it would be even better if that sentence ended with “….and who may never get recognition for those acts, or live to see the fruits of their labor.”

What kind of hero is that? 

The single mother or father working two jobs, to make sure their kids have a better life than theirs.

An older brother or sister who declines a college acceptance to stay home and take care of their younger siblings, or ailing parent. 

A teacher who spends their own money on school supplies to help the kids in their class because the school district doesn’t have enough money. 

Or, the scientist who devotes their career to research something no one believes in, with little or no funding, because they truly believe it will save humanity. 

Consider this

Mario Molina was a Mexican scientist who toiled away on a project for three decades before the world finally noticed. 

When Mario took a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Irvine, he chose to research chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), industrial chemicals, which at the time were seen to be harmless. Yet he found the CFCs, when released into the atmosphere in sufficient quantity, would deplete the ozone layer, resulting in skin cancer, cataracts, and immune disorders. It also damaged agricultural crops and marine phytoplankton, essential to the ecological balance of the world’s oceans. 

Mario published these findings in 1974, but it wasn’t until 2009, a full thirty-five years later that the United Nations ratified the original protocol he proposed. 

Putting it into Play

The world’s problems are no match for our lifespan. 

We fight for a cause we’ll never see come to fruition. 

We will work hard to make our children happy, functioning adults, yet may not see how they turn out. 

We’ll work on a project at work we care deeply about, but then get transferred, lose the funding, or the new CEO changes course. 

Our books and ideas might not be noticed by anyone ever, or maybe they will, long after you’re gone.

One of the ultimate acts of power is to act for a good whose benefit we may never see. As the proverb goes, we plant a tree whose shade we’ll never sit under. 

Molino said his life project was to “try to do something about directly applying scientific research to societal problems.”  Getting recognition for it was not part of his plan. 

We don’t have to be scientists, any small acts of goodness, however trivial, counts. Mowing your lawn, not for you, but for the neighbors walking by. Mentoring someone at work. Paying for the person in line behind you without knowing who they are. 

Doing good anonymously just may be the most heroic good of all.