Lives Seen; Lives Wasted?

I watch the episode of Supernatural; the one about the guys ending up at a Fan Convention for "Supernatural, the Books"...a world within a world, a plot within a plot, where the Winchester brothers are fiction heroes the like of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock...and fans LARP...(Live Action Role Play) dressing like Sam and Dean and their various associates and creature enemies - and play at "hunting" at the gathering.

Serious weird out. Show up at a convention about your own life...with people dressing and acting like you, replaying events in your life and speaking your private words like lines from a play.

Dean angrily tells a couple of the costumed participants that the Winchester brothers' lives are hard, scrabble, lonely, dark, bloody and dangerous — not fun, cool and romantic!

But in the end, the fan has the last best word...

After telling Dean he doesn't think he understands the point of the story, he continues,

"Alright look, in real life, he sells stereo equipment and I fix copiers. Our lives suck. But to be Sam and Dean; to wake up every morning and...save the world; to have a brother who would die for you. Well, who wouldn't want that?"

And in the end, Dean sees his life in a new way—through the eyes of the wise fan who maybe didn't understand their difficult and harsh daily grind, but totally understood the deeper meaning and transcendent value of their lives.

Is that true of all our lives? That others can see the greatness that we miss?

And if we don't have greatness in them, isn't it time we changed that?

The Gunslinger
(Applying for Hero Lessons)