This past summer we were amazed by the performance of Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps, who won every one of the eight events he entered. I was also moved by another athlete who reminded us that winning isn’t everything.

Lolo Jones, a young American woman, was the favorite in her event, the 100 meter hurdles. She was leading her race when disappointment struck. After clearing the first eight hurdles, she hit hurdle number nine, and her chance for Olympic Gold was over. She finished seventh.

Unfulfilled dreams are not new to Lolo Jones. She has known poverty and homelessness. At the 2004 Olympic trials, she fell during her specialty event, and failed to even make the team. And now she hit the hurdle.

I was moved by her story because our lives are not a series of first place finishes. Each of us, like Lolo Jones, knows what it feels like to encounter a hurdle. Each of us has experienced our share of pain, loss and failure. We have known death of loved ones, illness, financial distress and heartache.

When an athlete wins a race, we cheer. But when an athlete hits a hurdle, we encounter a role model of how to cope with disappointment. And we must admire this athlete who is able to hold her head up high and move forward in her life.

While many were watching the Olympic athletes on TV, others were watching Batman at the movies in the summer hit, The Dark Knight.

The Batman (as he is properly called) is a somewhat ambiguous superhero. His help is not always welcome by the police or the citizens of Gotham. Even the audience questions whether or not the Batman is “the good guy” all the time.

The Batman represents the complexity of all human beings. He is a dark, introspective character, and with good reason. As a young boy, he had witnessed the tragic murder of his parents, and therefore devotes his life to fighting crime and evil.

Unlike the other comic superheroes, the Batman possesses no actual superpowers. He is good at what he does because he worked hard to get there.

Superman pretends to be a human being named Clark Kent. The Batman, on the other hand, really is a human. He really is Bruce Wayne.

Batman is therefore a true role model for all humans. We, like him, are impacted by pain. We, too, are not always successful. But more important, we, like the Batman, are capable of doing our best to make a difference in the world.

There are people in the world (we believe that there are thirty-six of them) who are true tzadikim—righteous souls, who are always good. Likewise there are some people, again a small minority, who are r’sha’im—evil by their very nature. But we are taught not to see ourselves as either a tzaddik or a rasha—as neither righteous nor evil. If we see ourselves as evil, we will believe we are incapable of changing. If we see ourselves as righteous, we will believe that there is no need for us to change.

Rather, each of us should see ourselves as just human—in need of self improvement, but at the same time, capable of making the world a little bit better.