The Day That Superman Died

I still remember the day that Superman died. It's been a few years ago now, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I was traversing the airport in Reno, Nevada and I saw the headlines. There were about 12 different newspapers for sale—they were all in their machines—and I caught the headlines: "Superman Dies at 52."

Well, one of the reasons why I remember that clearly was that I happened to be exactly 52. It had some impact, as we were the same age. And I had always admired him, which is the real thing. Christopher Reeve was a hero and was a living Superman.

The day that he died—from a mix-up that the doctors had with medicine that they gave him—he'd been with his son, watching him at a sporting event. It's not easy to be a quadriplegic and move around. It would've been so much easier to stay in the house, to watch T.V. He was made a quadriplegic in a horse-riding accident, by the way.

He played the most virile role on earth—he was a superb actor, an example of a master craftsman at his craft. You know the person by the work they do. He was superb—and though he went from that most virile role possible to being a quadriplegic, racked with pain and needing help, he never quit being a hero.

His life was for others. He had a family; he was a motivational speaker. They'd put him up on an incline, and he could barely move. He just had peripheral vision—he could move his eyeballs—and he could speak. And it was with great effort. And he put everything he could into it, so that he could help encourage and inspire others.

It wasn't about the money. He didn't need the money.

A true hero. May they say the same about you. We've all got our individual paths to go down, and it's not up for everybody to be a Superman—that's not what's required. But what is, something that you should learn from this and that you should apply to yourself, is the heroic effort in a cause bigger than yourself.

You see, we do give back. You see, we are stewards of the gift of life, of the Life Force. That’s why they call the time that we live the present. In the evolutionary scheme of the Gods, yes, the world is intended to be better because we lived. If we have lived.

If we have lived, as Tennyson puts it in the mouth of Ulysses, “Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods”.

Why not?

You certainly can. That's the way that Superman lived, and that's the effects that he created. And if a quadriplegic can do it, a man racked with pain who required so much additional effort to do anything that you or I as normal people can do easily—well, what do you think? What do you think you should do?

I know that I think for myself, "Man, have I been creating too many excuses?"

I think it's time we all recognize the hero, and strive to live the heroic life.

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