What it means to be a hero? | In Memory of Chadwick Boseman
“When you’re doing a character, you want to know the full landscape. You want to know them spiritually, mentally and physically.”
Caption from Marvel designed by Ryan Meinerding, Head of Visual Development for Marvel Studios
What does it mean to be a hero?
I've been obsessed with heroes. I watched stories like star Wars, Spider-man X-Men, and countless others. As I grew older, these stories of heroes became normalized within our society. Those are idealized versions, and at the core of every hero story Is the belief that we have the responsibility to help others.
And so they do, but what does a hero look like in our lives? I believe we had a glimpse of true heroism with the passing of Chadwick Boseman. What blew me and most of the world away was the fact that he passed away with cancer, and he had been battling it since 2016.
“He lived a beautiful life. And he made great art. Day after day, year after year. That was who he was. He was an epic firework display.”
The news and social media spew toxic waste that distorts the view of our world. But every so often, a bit of hope comes to the surface. And that's what I thought about with the passing of Chadwick Boseman because Chadwick was an actor and played one of these superheroes on the biggest screen. The hero was the Black Panther, T’Challa.
He changed how people view, not only Black Panther, but the movie made a difference and how it portrayed African culture. While filming, he was fighting a battle we knew nothing about, and in a world where the tabloids and the media are looking for the juiciest story, he could have easily gone to the media circuit and said, look at what I've been created while battling with this disease.
By remaining silent, he made it bigger than himself. He chose to fight his battle in silence with his closest family and friends. Boseman let his passion for his own work stand above his own struggles. And for me to hear about this mentality as a public figure gives me hope that his craft was always about what he provided to others.
Chadwick felt responsible for what he was putting out in the world. He didn't want people to look at it and say, wow, look at him. He let what he was creating be what it was. I'm blown away by that.
In this world, we don't have people as often as they should stand above what they represent instead of being an actor and making a film. Then becoming an influencer afterward, he let his work be bigger than him.
I want to share a tweet from Chadwick's friend, Josh Gad. He posted a couple of text messages he received right before Chadwick passed away. And I thought it illustrated how powerful of a person Chadwick was.
I couldn't help but share this small message from Chadwick himself courtesy of Josh Gad. I think it represents the kind of person that Chadwick was and above all, I think the life of Chadwick. Gives us an example of what it means to be a true hero.
Wakanda Forever!
More to explore
Chadwick Boseman's Howard University 2018 Commencement Speech
“You might say that this African nation is fantasy. But to have the opportunity to pull from real ideas, real places and real African concepts, and put it inside of this idea of Wakanda - that’s a great opportunity to develop what a sense of identity is, especially when you’re disconnected from it.”
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Today on the podcast, we are joined by Joe Jackowski. Joe is a Marine Corps veteran and current graduate student at Vanderbilt University in the Cognitive Psychology in Context program. His primary interest is meaning in life, which broadly extends to problems in ethics, A.I., and culture.
In this episode, we sit down to discuss his first long-form article on his new sub stack, Apotheosis: A Philosophy for Influencers