Superpowers

This might be the most important question you answer in your entire life.

If you could choose between invisibility or flight as your superpower, which would it be? You'd be the only one with this superpower in the world, but you can't have both.

I know, right? Pretty deep stuff.

While listening to a This American Life podcast ironically titled Superpowers on the way from ATL Georgia to Opelika, I was asked this question. The funny thing is I knew my answer right away. No hesitation. Why? Well, kids, apparently I think about this on a more normal basis than most people.

So what did I choose? Flight. Hands down.

You see. There are many reasons I can think of that reaffirm my choice, but I'll just list a couple.

I love heights. Always have. I love jumping off the Lost Boys rock at Lake Martin. I love rappelling (regular and Australian style). I love every part of a flight. The ascent when things grow smaller and smaller, and you can use the finger trick on huge lakes and entire cities. The cruising altitude when all you see around you are clouds galore, and you feel like if you look hard enough you might just see Mary Poppins' umbrella in the distance. And last but not least...the descent, when the little specks turn into a baseball field or a swimming pool. The part of the flight when you return to reality.

Besides the fact that I love heights, the number one reason I can think of to back up my superpower choice is a recurring dream I have had since I was little.

I want to preface this by saying that there are maybe ten (probably a stretch) dreams that have stuck with me throughout my life. This dream is far less complex than some of the other dreams I can remember, so I'll sum it up for you real quicklike.

It starts out with me jumping on the trampoline in my backyard. I was fortunate enough to have a trampoline from the time I was one through my stint at the parentals house. Two of my close friends who happened to live in my neighborhood also had trampolines so needless to say we spent a good amount of time on our tramps.

(SENTIMENTAL SIDE NOTE: I have a great memory of jumping on the same tramp with my oldest nephew just as my mom had jumped with me sixteen years before on one of our home videos)

So I'm jumping just like normal in the dream, and then out of nowhere I start flapping my arms and I can fly. I can fly from anywhere after that. I just have to jump and start flapping my arms (wings?). This dream is always so bittersweet though when I wake up I realize it was simply a dream.

That, my friends, is why I choose flight.

According to the podcast, you're choice can tell you a lot more about yourself than you would think. Men lean towards flight more while women lean towards invisibility more. Flying means you have nothing to hide while invisibility means you want to hide yourself. Flight is the hero. Invisibility is the villain.

The conclusion according to one interviewee is that we all want to choose flight because it's the heroic and noble choice but deep down we know we want invisibility because that's who we are. It's a battle of who we are versus who we want to be.

Me? I just really wanted to fly. I had no idea it would take a turn for the deep. I guess I'm still a kid at heart.

I did ask two of my nephews at dinner the night I listened to this podcast what they would choose. Ironically enough, they chose invisibility. Apparently, I'm more of kid than they are. What I liked about their reasons for choosing invisibility was that they were actually thinking about which superpower would be better in a fight. They decided that if nobody can see you then how are they ever going to attack you. So it turned out they were still pretty good at being kids, too.

After talking to them, I realized that my answer was actually pretty selfish. I wanted flight simply for me. I wanted to get that feeling back from my dream. I didn't care about anyone else. It seems that even though I chose the heroic and noble superpower it wasn't for a heroic or noble cause. Heck...it wasn't for any cause. It was simply to enjoy MY life more. Weird.

You can listen to the podcast here.

no worries

While your already million item to-do list is doubling in size on this wonderful Monday, I would advise you take a much needed break from your day, and enjoy some encouraging words via Disney songs.