I never thought I would be this close to a major tragedy.

After spending most of my life in a small town in upstate New York, I never thought I would be in the same general area as a major tragedy. Imagine my surprise this morning when I opened up my browser and the first story on Yahoo was about a shooting in a movie theater in Aurora.

I'd just moved to Denver about a year ago, and the city is really nice. Denver and the outlying areas are really nice. I don't feel any anxiety no matter where I go. (Of course I haven't really felt that in any city I have visited.) It is a beautiful place with parks everywhere you travel.

Regardless of that, what I really want to talk about is the idea of hero worship, and how people can really miss the mark when they try to emulate their heroes. Now the man responsible for the shooting probably wasn't trying to be like Batman. The preliminary reports are saying he was trying to be like the Joker instead. However, there are lots of people that try to be like a certain hero, and so many times they do it wrong.

Think about that guy that puts on a Spider-man suit when he goes to climb a tall building. So many times, that is done in order to promote themselves. Spidey isn't about fame. He does what he does because it is the right thing to do.

• Superman is a boyscout because he can do so much, it helps him to stay humble.
• Batman strives to be the best because he cannot stand to fail.
• Captain America lived so long as the underdog that he can't stand to give up.
• Thor sees the nobility of others because he has spent his life surrounded by nobility.

So, I said all of this just to say that anyone who wants to emulate any kind of hero really needs to get to know that figure better.