My Hero for the Week

"Jesus was not a celebrity. Jesus was a hero."

That phrase was uttered by a priest during a midnight Christmas mass I attended in New Mexico. I am not religious, but had been invited by a friend to the service, and while some might find such statements to be trite, I took this particular one to heart. There are too many celebrities and not enough heroes in this world. Don't aspire to be the former. Strive to be the latter.

And thus I present my Hero for the Week, which probably won't be given out every week because I'll forget, but I like the sound of it. My Hero of the Week is a person who is losing at losing – that is to say, they aren't losing at all.

And my Hero for the Week is Kate, who is a musician here in San Francisco and whom I've known for 15 years. She has been fighting now for 7 of those years, fighting and fighting and sometimes I was afraid that she was going to lose. But Kate is also the toughest, most determined person I know.

This past week, Kate got the best news she's ever received from her doctors. She says she will never truly be in remission – but I know that just means she will have more chances to win. Kate doesn't like to lose and she isn't going to. She is going to keep winning and winning and winning some more.

And for that, Kate is my Hero for the Week. I strive to someday possess a similar strength.