50 WORDS

Almost a Hero

Fifty Word Challenge #36: Heroes And Heroines

Bob Ebeling knew the Challenger might blow up. If they had listened, waited until spring, the disaster would have been avoided. He would have been a hero. Instead, he lived with guilt until a news story brought letters from people who thanked him for trying. I was one of them.

When I heard this story on NPR I could hear the pain in his voice. I have felt guilt for not being able to stop an accident or someone from dying. I know the feeling of failure, though not to the extent of the shuttle disaster. It wasn’t his fault. He really tried. Bob Ebeling’s pain so moved me that I joined hundreds of people in writing to say “thank you” and to suggest it’s time he forgive himself. Perhaps we each need to forgive ourselves for not being heroes.

Thanks to Marla Bishop for this nifty fifty-word challenge.

Karen’s goals for 2021 include finishing her MFA thesis and dressing like a Star Trek alien from a utopian planet. Her Creative Nonfiction and poetry have appeared in Brevity, NPR’s The New Normal, Straw Dog Writer’s Guild Pandemic Poetry and Prose, Multiplicity and Voices of the Valley Anthology.