Heroes

A few years ago there was a television show called Heroes. I got hooked on the show for a few reasons. First the original tag line was "Save the cheerleader, save the world." It made you wonder how those two things could possibly go together. The second thing was it had the best evil guy ever, if you are willing to ignore Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker. The evil guy was named Sylar. If you are a fan of Star Trek he plays Spock in the last two films. The final draw was that ordinary people were in possession of extraordinary powers or abilities. They could for instance fly, or read minds, or teleport, or heal from any injury, or move objects with their minds. It makes you wonder. If you could have an ability that no one else had what would it be? Every special ability I think about I see problems.

Reading minds- Really? You want to know what other people are thinking? Don't we all at times show a remarkable lack of control over our thoughts. You are talking about something vitally important like how much insurance I should carry on my car. I am thinking: "Why doesn't he notice that chunk of dried snot hanging out of his nose? You would think that the air going in and out would cause a noticeable vibration. Maybe he's a mouth breather. Do I want someone who has a bat hanging out of the cave and breathes through his mouth telling me about car insurance." Since I have a remarkable inability to deal with two things at once I now have no idea what he just said. Since I have these kinds of thoughts I don't want anyone reading my mind and I assume everyone else has a head full of this kind of shit. I would rather just hear people talk and hope the world is all rainbows and unicorns.

Flying- I see this as a real problem. Not afraid of heights when I am in an airplane. Take away the plane and it is just me and my skin and all I can say is look out below. If you don't like bird shit falling on your car you don't want me flying. The other problem I see is that to save money friends would be asking me to take them to their destination. I love you folks but I don't want to be flying you around on my back.

Invisibility- Why? Really aside from being able to go around and see people naked what is the point. Sure you could listen in to conversation and hear things people didn't want you to, but isn't that rude beyond belief. In some ways worse than reading their minds. Since I have been to a nudist resort and seen what the average person looks like naked the appeal of sneaking around seeing naked people is gone.

Healing- Since I am not a big fan of pain and the character in the show who had this ability still felt pain. I am thinking this ability would be of little use to me. If I could heal others? Not really. At first glance it would seem like a good idea. If you look a little deeper it loses its appeal. How do you decide who to heal? There isn't enough time to heal everyone. How do you decide who is worthy? What if you heal someone who would have died and later they kill someone else? How do you live with that? Best to leave well enough alone. This one is similiar to time travel for me. You always think you would go back and change something that happened or that you did. You would make it better. Would it be better? Read Stephen King's book 11-22-63. We will talk after that. For now my advice is that the past should stay the past.

So that is my take on having a power. Take a few minutes to think about one you think you would like to have. After you get through the initial warm glow take a few minutes and pull back the curtain and think about what it would really mean.