Superpowers Are Real Part II: On Identifying Your Powers
If you missed last week’s Part I, find it here: Superpowers Are Real
When I was a kid, I loved Spider-Man. I had Spider-Man action figures, video games, and even a blue and red glove outfitted with a silly string canister that would allow me to shoot sticky spider webs from my hands. When I was six, my Mom even had a local artist come in and paint a life size Spider-Man on my bedroom wall to immortalize his web-slinging forever.
I didn’t want to be like Spider-Man, I wanted to be Spider-Man. Ultimately though, there are no caped or masked heroes flying around the city, saving any and all innocent people from villains and calamities.1
But hey:
What if the powers of superheroes are just a metaphor that can provide clues for what your superpowers are?
What are the characteristics that make superheroes and their respective powers captivating? Is it Superman’s super strength, heat vision, and ability to fly? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have the ability to win an Olympic gold medal using his strength, or fly to the tropics at a moment’s notice. “It’s a bird? It’s a plane? No it’s Jordan, he just forgot his flip-flops!”.
Sure, their powers are fancy, but what if there’s something more?
What draws me to Superman isn’t his powers specifically, it’s his resilience, his capacity to work a day job as Clark Kent and still save the world on a part time basis while working as a journalist (parallels to writing), and his ability to go anywhere at any time (because he can fly).
By exploring what resonates with us about these characters, we can become aware of what powers we already have.
Superheroes are an exciting caricature that represent our best traits, and the same thought process applies to our friends and family in our everyday lives. Friends and family can act as a mirror to yourself. If you think about their powers (maybe it’s emotional intelligence, generosity, or humor), the powers you most admire in them are the powers most prevalent in you.
When I was growing up I really admired one of my friends in the neighborhood. He could play any sport and was great at them all - baseball, basketball, football, golf, you name it. I’d think to myself, “Wow, I wish I could do all those things and be good at them”. A couple decades later, I’ve found that a lot of my athleticism branches over into other sports and endeavors in the same way his powers once did.
I already had the traits that I admired in him somewhere deep down.
You must be careful though, as Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben said, “with great power comes great responsibility”. Your superpowers are not inherently good or evil. For example, maybe your superpower is emotional sensitivity. You have a choice in how you use those powers. As a hero, you can use those powers to better and more quickly relate to others and form strong bonds. But on the flip side, you can also use this sensitivity for evil. Maybe a small annoyance happens, like the waiter at the restaurant messes up your order and you blow a fuse because you’re prone to wild, emotional highs. You must do what you can to learn your powers, but also learn to control them.
Not only can you identify your powers from your favorite superheroes or from your friends or from your family, but once you identify your superpowers, you can become a superhero for someone else.
My Grandfather had many superpowers, but I’ll primarily remember him for two. His favorite, and the one I most remember him for was his creativity. He could build almost anything out of wood, fix most problems with metal (via welding), and could rebuild small engines in tractors and lawnmowers. He even had a shop in the basement that closely resembled a superhero’s headquarters.
He and my Grandmother bought a fix-’er-upper home (you know, the kind with the wonderfully red, shaggy ‘70s carpets) and he single handedly remodeled the entire home (including building the dining room furniture and making the door frames with small, intricate designs and lines on them). He devised it all himself, got approval from my Grandmother and made it all happen. His handiwork and attention to craft, combined with my Grandmother’s ability to turn a house into a home - a home where we could share holidays, long summer evenings, and great laughs - is about as super as anything I can think of.
I’ll also remember him for his toughness and strength. I remember he used to cut down mid-size trees in his yard with his chainsaw well into his late 70s. One summer, he had hired a crew to cut down some massive longleaf pines in his front yard. He and I went out in the Carolina humidity and loaded up massive blocks of pine trunk into his white F-150 and hauled them out into the country for disposal. The man might as well have been 20 years old.2
My Grandfather was and still is Superman for me. He was what I hope I can be for my own grandchildren one day.
Just like superheroes, you have powers. Look to your favorite Superheroes whether that be in comics and movies or from the heroes in your own life (family and friends) to identify your own powers. One glance, acknowledgement, or kind act is in itself a superpower, and all you have to do is use your powers to save the world. Remember, you never know who’s watching and who’s secretly looking up to you. Identify your powers, use them for good, become a Superhero for someone else, and save the day.
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Much to the dismay of little kid me, this also means that I can't climb up walls and shoot webs out of my hands, sigh
Maybe one of his other powers was his ability to defy old age. Or maybe one of my Grandmother's powers was to keep them both young and spry. Maybe a little of both?