POWERFUL WOMEN BEGETTING THIRD MILLENNIUM HEROES

In olden times emperors, military leaders and saints were regarded as heroes. They decided people's destinies and those of countries and nations. Then there were politicians and writers determining who would «conquer the minds of the generation,» and who everybody should seek as an example. In the twentieth century, this hero seems to be a character a bit eccentric, determined to create a world all his own, independently of all those «masses.» Currently, we have to admit that this super-individualist is being crowded out by one best described as a man of the crowd, capable of lending that crowd an uncommon visage. As far as I am concerned, this is precisely what is happening in Ukraine, with perhaps one reservation: the hero is a woman. Our women have so many burdens on their shoulders they have to turn into heroes if they want to survive. Family, work, progress, their own inner world — with women all this is much more complex, yet all these factors somehow coexist without degrading. I am not saying that there are no heroic men. There are, but they become ones only if they are with such special women. Men refusing to play second fiddle, remaining silent and passive, nevertheless do something for their women, often acting like real knights. I can see boys my age looking for girls of precisely this type, so they can feel better being with them — and I don't mean feeling more comfortable by shifting all the responsibility on her shoulders, although this also happens. Thus, women will be heroes of our time in the coming millennium, all those wives, mothers, friends, and partners to be, raising new male heroes whose names will one day resound over the planet.