“I’d do it for naked for nothing on a street corner.”

Melissa Leo was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance as an impoverished single mom in the 2008 film “Frozen River.” Interviewed about her raw, bravura achievement, she said that though agents would kill her for saying it, her elation in getting that role in director Courtney Hunt’s movie—it required her to plumb the depths of her skill and courage as an actress—was such that she “would do it naked for nothing on a street corner.” What passion and commitment. Wow!

She’s saying what every passionate, committed artist thinks, feels and lives. Go back in time, as far back as history records human behavior, and you sense the same feral power in the great achievers in any area of life, anywhere in the world, at any time. Not just actors and architects, poets and painters, sculptors and writers, but politicians and military leaders, athletes and inventors . . . the list is endless, beyond description. All, virtually without exception, give their inmost hearts, souls and energies to deliver on their visions, to climb the mountains facing them, to deny the naysayers who are always ready to reject them, to defy the suffering and deprivation that many situations demand of them. To say that their performances under duress are inspiring is understatement. Implicitly we are asked to do the same in our own daily lives.

Missing, sadly: the heroes whose efforts are so rarely recorded, or even available for recording—men and women who often give their lives so that others may live. For every Congressional Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross or Croix de Guerre awarded for bravery in battle, for heroism beyond comprehension, scores, hundreds, thousands of heroic deeds are performed daily worldwide that will never be recognized or rewarded.

For many of those heroes, the reward is often irrelevant, even embarrassing. They did what they did as well as they could because . . . it was right. They could see no other possible course of action. Sully’s recent Hudson River exploit—the result of training and the ability to analyze, decide and execute with professional excellence—is typical but still above and beyond the call of duty, thus heroic. The same goes for the millions suffering worldwide from disease, starvation, terrorism, imprisonment and slavery. They endure bravely, mostly in silence, but their hearts beat just like ours.

Whatever we do in our daily lives, at whatever level of responsibility or expertise, we can be passionate and committed. Even the humblest task can be done with desire and responsibility. As a freelance writer, curious about everything in this naughty, nutty world, I want to consider the unthinkable, discuss the unspeakable and attempt, on the edge, whatever does not harm others. Though the money helps put bread on the table, I would do it naked for nothing on a street corner.

Each of us strives for one thing, beyond the money: external authentication for a good job well done. It’s not self-congratulatory or selfish. It often won’t put bread on the table. It’s recognition by another human, with nothing to gain from saying so, who utters in his or her heart, in thanks for what one has done, a simple ‘Yes.’ This is part of the longing that drove Leo.

She had tough competition and did not win. Even at the highest elevations, where the air is thin and it is hard to breathe or speak, where one dares not look down for fear of vertigo, someone else is working ferociously to excel, to be the best of the best. Whatever your area of work, this is the irresistible force of competition, and it never goes away.

Welcome to real life.

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