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I have been asked to organize run a challenge event on heroism - stories about heroes, how to define and recognize heroism and what heroism means to us as authors and, perhaps, to the characters in their tales.
David Harris, onetime husband of Joan Baez, said that there are two types of public figures - idols and heroes. Idols, he said, show us our limitations. Few of us can realistically aspire to be a supermodel, an A-List actor or an Olympic athlete. Such people exist in a sense almost as a negation of the rest of us.
On the other hand, Harris said, there are heroes, “something that teaches people what they can be… an available model that doesn't exist as something that’s impossible to reach, but really exists as the embodiment of what everybody could be.”
Some types of heroism are easy to recognize - the kind of white-hot bravery, for instance, that sends a perfect stranger running into a burning house to save another’s children. There’s the selfless devotion demonstrated by medical staff and first responders during the scariest height of the pandemic. There’s the moral and physical courage of a 5’ 3” woman refusing to support an unjust society by sitting in the back of an Alabama bus. ’Thank you’ just doesn’t cut it in such cases.
There’s also a more subtle type of heroism, a quiet, stubborn refusal to bow to ill fate or to surrender in the face of fearful odds, be it a poor widow fighting to keep her children fed or, in our case, a good man stubbornly refusing to do the expected, to simply give up and let cancer overwhelm him. For those who didn't know, Ogg died quietly in his bed on 30 May. He had requested that this event be postponed until after his death.
With his example in mind, I have been specifically requested to entitle this the ‘Heroism - the Oggbashan Memorial Event’, an annual tribute to a man too damned stubborn to bow to life’s bitter sentences, too proud to stay silent and too full of life to simply fade away. Thank you, Ogg. We miss you.
This event is open to all. Stories and essays may be of any length over 750 words and may be on any theme, erotic or non-erotic. As well as descriptions of heroic acts, discussions and insights about the meaning and importance of heroism in today's world are encouraged.
Submissions should include the phrase OGGBASHAN MEMORIAL EVENT 2023 in the Notes box of the submissions page.
Ogg’s funeral will be held very soon, the afternoon of 14 July, 2023. That’s not much time, granted, but a release date of 14 July would be the best possible memorial to our late friend and colleague. (It is Laurel’s wish that this become an annual event and more time will be given in future years.) Accordingly, all entries need to be submitted by end of day 13 July, 2023 and will be published the following day.
tp
David Harris, onetime husband of Joan Baez, said that there are two types of public figures - idols and heroes. Idols, he said, show us our limitations. Few of us can realistically aspire to be a supermodel, an A-List actor or an Olympic athlete. Such people exist in a sense almost as a negation of the rest of us.
On the other hand, Harris said, there are heroes, “something that teaches people what they can be… an available model that doesn't exist as something that’s impossible to reach, but really exists as the embodiment of what everybody could be.”
Some types of heroism are easy to recognize - the kind of white-hot bravery, for instance, that sends a perfect stranger running into a burning house to save another’s children. There’s the selfless devotion demonstrated by medical staff and first responders during the scariest height of the pandemic. There’s the moral and physical courage of a 5’ 3” woman refusing to support an unjust society by sitting in the back of an Alabama bus. ’Thank you’ just doesn’t cut it in such cases.
There’s also a more subtle type of heroism, a quiet, stubborn refusal to bow to ill fate or to surrender in the face of fearful odds, be it a poor widow fighting to keep her children fed or, in our case, a good man stubbornly refusing to do the expected, to simply give up and let cancer overwhelm him. For those who didn't know, Ogg died quietly in his bed on 30 May. He had requested that this event be postponed until after his death.
With his example in mind, I have been specifically requested to entitle this the ‘Heroism - the Oggbashan Memorial Event’, an annual tribute to a man too damned stubborn to bow to life’s bitter sentences, too proud to stay silent and too full of life to simply fade away. Thank you, Ogg. We miss you.
This event is open to all. Stories and essays may be of any length over 750 words and may be on any theme, erotic or non-erotic. As well as descriptions of heroic acts, discussions and insights about the meaning and importance of heroism in today's world are encouraged.
Submissions should include the phrase OGGBASHAN MEMORIAL EVENT 2023 in the Notes box of the submissions page.
Ogg’s funeral will be held very soon, the afternoon of 14 July, 2023. That’s not much time, granted, but a release date of 14 July would be the best possible memorial to our late friend and colleague. (It is Laurel’s wish that this become an annual event and more time will be given in future years.) Accordingly, all entries need to be submitted by end of day 13 July, 2023 and will be published the following day.
tp
). On the other hand, happy, contented drunkenness - restrained or unso - is something I can certainly see Ogg as having endorsed at one time or another.
