I've pondered in the past how much we really know ourselves, or each other. Real-life heroes, for instance, seem to me to be born that way, and fate provided an opportunity for them to do something extraordinary that most people wouldn't do. The person who leaps between the subway tracks and puts his body over a child who fell down there wasn't necessarily trained to do such a thing. I don't think there's anything specific to their gender, ethnicity, racial background, or anything else that drives them to behave heroically. In that split-second, where most people's desire for self-preservation would have held them back, some individuals choose to do something with what we might describe as a very bad risk to reward ratio.
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