Life's Persistent Questions

What superhero power would you want?

Amazingly, most people would say INVISIBILITY. Well, most guys that is. But yes it would be great to be invisible, or would it?

Believe it or not, I have actually given this a fair amount of thought. Now you say, what's so bad about not to be seen by others, and go anywhere you want? The trouble is it will take a lot of adjustment on our superhero's daily habits. since you are invisible, other people won't see you coming. Imagine walking through a crowd, or driving down the road in your nifty invisibility-mobile. You will have to anticipate anyone and everyone-who's-next-to-you's every possible move. That would be a pain, if not impossible. And those automatic sliding doors, forget about it. Your personal space would be squeezed to the size of a quark. I often thought about writing a story of a day in the invisible man's life, and how unbearable it would be.

But wait, there are people around us that live their lives as invisible beings. Really? I think that to a certain extent, the homeless, the obese and the mentally disabled are more or less invisible to most people. We avoid eye contact, give them a wide berth, and in general, consciously not think about them. We do it for different reasons. The homeless: I don't want to give them any money. The obsese: it's not polite to stare. The disabled: they might be crazy. In the end, we go through life acting like they don't exist. They are invisible to us, but they are no superheros.

posted by hedgehog @ 11:40 PM