I caught an old movie the other night that got me thinking about heroes. The movie was "Jeremiah Johnson." Robert Redford plays Jeremiah, a mountain man who lives in a remote wilderness that is teeming with hostile American Indians. Over the course of the film he makes a horrible error in judgement that causes the Indians to target him and his companions for death. Unfortunately for the Indians, Jeremiah is a man of uncanny inner strength and resiliency. Killing Jeremiah, it seems, is a task that is better left to the gods. Now the thing about this movie that makes an impact isn't the breakneck action or the impending dread of the Indian forces gathering against Jeremiah. In my mind, it's the sheer vacuum of bravado expressed by Jeremiah. He never prepares in any real sense for the Indians' onslaught of murderous rage and vengeance. He simply and quietly deals with it. He is implacable. He is steadfast. He is as resigned to his fate of neverending battle as he is to the fact that the sun will rise each day. And it's this utter lack of action-hero antics that makes Jeremiah, in my eyes, a hero to be reckoned with. As the film goes on, even the Indians attacking him begin to treat him with a reverence that borders on worship. Jeremiah becomes a quiet, ghostly pillar of strength, and it's all because he is a hero that prefers to walk toward danger rather than run toward it. That cool-headedness is very powerful, and there's an old joke that helps drive the point home -

A young bull and an old bull look down on a pasture of cows. The young bull nudges the old bull and says, "Hey, lets run down there, have our way with one or two of those lovely cows, and then run away." The old bull turns to the young bull, narrows his eyes and says, "I'd rather walk down there and have my way with all of them."

I like a hero who walks.
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