The Hero with a Secret (written 2005, essay contest)

Misleading it may be to regard one individual with higher esteem and with greater admiration than another, for some tend to believe that idolizing another human being falls nothing short of self-deprecating. However, the intent is not to make a god out of man; rather, the man is to become the model and the stepping stone for another man to become an even greater man, a being whose charities and charismas become elaborated, celestially evolved versions of their former selves. The self is not lost amid the torrents of a personality crisis, but, having been given direction and purpose, swims toward a distant yet glorious goal.
As my personality fought its way through the societal wars waged upon my soul, my guiding light had always been my older brother Darrell. His virtues were and are classically admirable, yet there is a uniqueness--an understood individuality--about them. They do not bombard the psyche with awesome profundity or spiritual arrogance; rather, they are presented subtly and with the utmost reverence for a higher purpose in life. I cannot describe with perfect acuity the myriad ways in which this man has, through palmary accomplishments and sanguine efforsts to bring about harmony within in his home, developed in me my own zeal for a successful and charitable life. Yet, since this assignment requires me to do so, forcing my mental agility and verbal talent through the gauntlet of objectivity, I must relinquish all apprehensions of sounding childish and try to convey what sanctity surrouns the man I have presented to you.
Direction provides an individual with the proper focus for the talens he has nurtured and gives him a finite power of the major components of his destiny. Through repentance, penance, and the most bitter pain, my brother has found his direction and his purpose in this world. He no longer wanders about from task to task, searching for the man he shall become; rather, he advances himself further on the path of righteousness and self-betterment daily, leaving behind all traces of former vices. He bows not to the temptations to which other men so easily succumb; he is fixed in his ultimate purpose to make use of his life for the greater good of God and man.
Respect and respectability must accompany one another if they are to be of any use to an individual, for without respectability, a man is forsaken and ignored by others; he is broken and defeated even before the battle has begun. Yet, without repsect for both his superiors and inferiors, a man can fall nothing short of dictatorial and inhuman. However, I see in my brother the proper combination of these qualities. He is peaceful and benevolent, yet he commands and pays respect so naturally that he is automatically and instinctively a leader of men on all levels. His intelligence serves to educate the ignorant, his confidence serves to bolster the spirits of the emotionally destitute, and his optimism serves to inspire hope in the most hopeless and most pathetic of souls. I would contradict every world I have thus far spoken if I were to say that the latter of the categories was not my home and my classification for the longest period.
Humility and righteousness also seem to me qualities correlative, for the benefits of humilty are nothing without zeal for justice. My brother is content spending his hours toiling outside of the spotlight, allowing men more adequately equipped to handle such pressure; however, he is not content to let those same men despoil the chastity of justice and violate the decency of democracy through opposition and trickery. He speaks out against the guilty in his community, not to gain prominence but to inspire in others the quality of moral fortitude. Yet, through all of this discreet preaching and indirect proclamation, his eyes are not fixed on the mundane rewards offered by this life: He is focused on his path toward a heavenly kingdom, determined to bring about the will of God in the world.
My eyes swell with tears when I think of a man so close to me in morality yet so far removed from me in the physical realm. The distance between us has often been disheartening, for his home itself is the seed of turmoil in our society. This home has tortured my mother with its unforgiving discipline, provoked in her a bitter hatred for cruelty and injustice, and left her alone on those nights on which she had most desperately needed her son. Yet, this despicably volatile atmosphere has not only brought out the aforementioned qualities from a state of sepulchral dormancy; it has also tested and refined them into the heavenly models that they are today. My brother's home is at 99 Water Street in Wilkes-Barre in the sixteenth cell on the D-block of the second floor inside the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.
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No way that was going to win anything...