I have read the words before, but to actually feel it: what would it be like to hunger for justice? I don't think I can quite comprehend it, never having really been wronged by anyone in my life, nor knowing of anyone who was truly a victim of malice. What would it be like to feel it pathologically, I wonder, to be a Batman-like character who craves to make things right, even if he has to break a few bones to do so? Could it be an addiction, like a compulsion to clean? Addiction I understand, but with me, some substance has to be involved for me to be able to wrap my mind around it. And mostly, too, I think I comprehend more of wanting what is wrong with a far more clarity than to desire something that angels do — does even the superego crave things? It may be that I don't know what I'm asking.
For my part, I have realized (some time ago), that I am no hero, but I do think that perhaps there is a little hero in all of us. It's probable that I'm thinking too big when I ask my question; I have a tendency for that, if you haven't noticed. And it may be that even those truly known as heroes start small: picking up dropped handkerchiefs, helping little old ladies across the street, giving your spare change to the homeless. Perhaps to hunger for justice begins with that kid whose ice cream cone got knocked down by a passing bike messenger? So you buy him a new one. It may just be that the one thing being a hero doesn't start with is just sitting there and letting the pieces fall where they may. Nothing ever heroic about that.
