If you win a gold medal, you are a hero. If a building falls on you, or you pull someone out of a burning car or a river swollen by torrential rains, you are a hero, even if you are just doing your job.

But I’m thinking about other heroes who every day, at great danger or cost to themselves, care for someone else. People who give a shit when they don’t really have to, people who care when they would have a good excuse to do less.

Being a good parent is hard for anyone. I have two daughters, so I know this. How anyone can be a single parent and not fucking die is beyond my comprehension. So single parents are my personal heroes. I stayed home with a baby while my wife worked. There is nothing more soul-killing than that. The lack of sleep alone kills you, yet I had a devoted wife doing more than her share. I got so tired I almost (accidentally) burned down the house. I got so depressed and confused I could barely function around other adults.

Now my kids are bigger with other concerns. Helping them with school, loving them and supporting them takes a huge amount of energy, even for me, and my wife does more of that than I do. Yet there are single parents who not only keep their kids fed and clothed, they manage to raise them into actual human beings.

Someone who manages to do this alone is heroic. There should be parking spaces reserved everywhere for single parents; they should have a special lane reserved for them on the freeway, and they should be exempt from income and sales taxes. Among other perks.

Are you a single parent? You are my hero, if you manage that.