Can your super power manipulate time and space
When I was young, it was not uncommon for my buddies and I to dream up superpowers we wish we could suddenly have. You know the game, you get one super power, that either you create or pick from your favorite super hero. Maybe this is just a guy thing, but I kind of have a feeling that young girls too may have had such conversations. If your not familiar with is kind of childhood conversation, it’s ok, it’s a fairly simple idea. You, a mere mortal, get to choose an out of this world super power, and then of course spend the rest of your sun filled lazy summer day dreaming up all sorts of ways you might use said super power. Again, not that complex, it’s just simple childhood imagination at work.
Well, while my friends reached into the regular bag of super hero tricks, like flying, super strength, super speed, lasers from your eyes, I always chose the ability to stop time. Not sure why I was always drawn to it, but it was to me the greatest thing you could do. I mean think about it, the crazy-loud-screaming-by-you-at-light-speed world suddenly stops with a snap of a finger and there you are, just you, and no one can do a thing about it. You can walk right down the middle lane of the freeway and nothing will hit you. You can sneak on stage at your favorite bands concert and see what the world looks like from their vantage point. The possibilities really are endless. But the truth is, I was always attracted to stopping time and it really wasn’t until this week that I understood why.
The other night I saw a short interview with a woman who had lost her only two children, both girls, 6 and 8, in an airplane accident 20 years ago. It was just a heart wrenching interview to watch this woman talk about a loss of this magnitude. The interviewer of course brought up the idea of time, time is the great healer. This is where I felt her response was the single greatest description of losing loved ones I have ever heard or muttered myself. She said, time does not heal, it makes us stronger to be able to fight through the pain of the ever growing distance we experience from our loved ones. And there I was, with tears in my eyes, I suddenly felt the need to stop time. To snap my fingers and just briefly pause this slow migrating distance we all experience from losing our loved ones. We continue down our path of life and they, don’t. This distance grows every day, week, month and then suddenly years have gone by, and we find ourselves so far from them that we couldn’t find our way back even if we tried.
It was at this moment that I suddenly understood my childhood super power, stoping time. It is true, I can stop time. and I do it regularly. I am actually quite addicted to stoping time. If I don’t do it at least every couple of days, I start to fall apart. Life starts to turn into that crazy-loud-screaming-by-you-at-the-speed-of-light sort of thing again. I reach down, I grab my brush and I start to paint. The world around me disappears. And it is in these small empty spaces that the ever widening distance from all the loved ones I have lost shrinks to nothing. Time stops and I can dance with everyone who I have ever lost. So, yes, I do have a super power, and yes, and I use it often. Whats your super power?