I can teach you to be a superhero. I can get you going on costumes, disguises, alter egos. I'm working on a manual with visuals so you won't have to do much reading. I don't believe that the ability to read should be a prerequisite for the superhero life. I know you're time constrained but want to be super. I offer courses you can take from your own home. You can become a superhero at your own pace.
Powers--sometimes, you're born with them; sometimes, you aren't. I can bring out your God-given powers that only the select few possess; I can teach you to maximize your human abilities, learn to turn your basic body into an instrument of war. I can teach you to jump. Over cars, low-level buildings, straight up high in the air. I can teach you to scale buildings. Move from level to level, window to window, hang by hand from the space between bricks. I can teach you healing. I can teach you how to walk through fire unscathed. I can teach you how to shoot basic earth elements from your body as projectiles.
There are things, though, I can't teach you. You should be aware of these things before you go any further. I can't teach you to fly. The sobering, un-super reality of liability prevents it. I can't explain to you the unexplainable yin and yang of how once you become a superhero, super villains will begin to appear where they didn't exist previously. I can't save you from the inevitable tragic losses of loved ones you are sure to experience. I can’t spare you the pain of the woman you love just being out of reach. I can't teach you how to have a heart, show compassion for the world’s mothers and daughters. I can’t teach how to know, now’s the time to begin. I can't teach you how to know when it's time to say, it's over.
Fabulous. The things that cannot be taught overshadow the small things that can.
ReplyDeleteReads like a good commencement address for the young about to get into adult life, but we need reminding too every now and then that we can really only teach ourselves the important things . . .
ReplyDeleteI just love the edginess of this piece, Chris. And the understatedness of it, too. It's all so calm, so precise -- the manual, the costumes, the listing of all the things possible and impossible. The contrast between the level tone here and the extraordinary things you address is quite wonderful. It's like a punch in the face full of reality. Really full.
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