imaginable.

I’ve listened and re-listened to the “Superpowers” episode of This American Life. Is one of my favorites. The first act is a guy who develops a cocktail party-type quiz asking: You are given a choice—you can choose between the power of invisibility and the power of flight. You are the only person who will have this power. What do you choose? It is an entirely glib and inconsequential line of questioning that has proven over the last few weeks to be the most thoroughly engaging and interesting questions I have ever asked anyone.

(I chose the power of flight on an instinct; waffled back and forth for a week, then ended up back at flight. The problem with invisibility is that there is no conceivable way that I could use it for good. None more way. Now, I don't think there's anybody who could really use invisibility for sustained good. That aside, I would not just use it for bad, but use it BADLY. What would I do? You have to be stealthy and silent when invisible, and i am big as shit and clumsy as poo. I would decided to go to Nordstrom and steal clothes. But really what I would want is shoes, and to get the shoes I’d have to go in the back room with its narrow halls and I would maybe bump shoulders with an employee or fall off the ladder or whatever and so even if I was lucky enough not to get caught in that process, I would give up, go up a few flights and steal some cardigans or something. And cardigans do not proper consolation make. ..I would also get some nice socks, though the sock-getting process would be fairly laborious, as you can only put on a few pairs of socks before your shoes won’t fit anymore. Then I’d have to go out to the car, take them off and go back inside. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Boo-oring. I'd rather fly up to the bar.)

The thing that truly fascinates about this superpower question, though, is how universally it appeals to everyone to whom i have posed it. People I haven't seen in forever, have just met, or have an intimate connection with--doesn't matter: They all have engaged in it eagerly and at length. What is the magic, then? A combination of 3 things. A Value Menu super-combo deluxe of imagination & history & speculation. In each of our kid-histories, there was a time when imagination and speculation ran right next to each other, stride for stride. Right?

I mean, if you can get someone telling stories about their past, you can very quickly come to know things about them that otherwise seem impossible to get at. And everybody at some point thought that they would maybe end up a superhero or crimefighter of some sort. As a kid, not only do speculation and imagination live close by, they're also right next door to what's actually happening; some bleed-over is bound to happen. ..Even as late as the 4th grade I was reasonably sure that I had preternatural hearing. Not "spidey-sense" exactly, although, yes, that is what what it was. I remember putting on the big headphones for the hearing test where you raise your right or left hand every time you hear a PING in either ear. I closed my eyes, relaxed my shoulders, and breathed: and I heard EVERY SINGLE sound. Even a few that the machine did not mean to make---that's right; I heard them too. I had no agenda. I was just using the tools that god gave me (and maybe me alone?). See, when I was 9, my ears were approximately the same size that they are now, 20 years later. ie, E-f'ing-Normous. Rather unwieldy. And it made so much sense to me that they were that big for a Reason: you know, the bigger the dish, the better the reception. Why else?

..So it's fun to watch people's minds & memories go back to that place when super powers were a way to deflect insecurity. Even now, talking about this as grownup-types, it's the same thing. It manifests a little differently, as the talk is of stealing shoes and riding the plane for free instead of thwarting robbers and conversing with dolphins, but the meat of it is just as clean. We have lived with our shortcomings [big ears; constant need for shoes] for long enough to accept that they were not born of a higher purpose. But that makes our insecurities no less pervasive, and thoughts of a superpower trump card no less delicious to the imagination.