If you had the chance, which superpower would you choose, flight or invisibility?
Quickly. Choose.
It’s said that your spontaneous response reveals something about your personality. Hmm.
After a minute, though, don’t you start to think about it? That’s what interests me—the details of the superpower. If I could fly, how would I know that someone’s in trouble so I could fly off and save them? And then I’d need a weapon, wouldn’t I? And some martial arts training. Nope. That doesn’t sound like me. Maybe I could fly just for fun. I could fly to Bali and swim at Kuta Beach. The trouble with this superpower game is that it’s for a personal superpower, and who wants to go to the beach alone?
My sister said she’d like to fly serenely through the woodlands, enjoying the trees and wildflowers. I can see that that might be pleasant, but it’s not the superpower one usually thinks of. It’s more like being a fairy or a butterfly. Not being superman or superwoman.
What about invisibility? My first thought was that invisibility might be good for an author. I could listen to conversations, maybe even take notes. Invade their privacy? No. Besides, most conversations tend to be boring and repetitive. That’s why authors try to write dialogue that’s concise, meaningful, and interesting.
I could be a spy, I suppose. Bring back information about our enemies, whatever tidbits our government can’t learn by spying electronically. But wouldn’t the life of a spy be awfully lonely?
The trouble with this game is that the superpower is only for you—which makes sense, I suppose, in a country that values individualism and self-sufficiency.
Then I remembered a classic Chinese tall tale my late husband told me. It was about seven brothers with seven distinct superpowers. As luck would have it, I had a children’s book based on the tale in a downstairs bookcase. The Seven Chinese Brothers is a retelling by Margaret Mahy and illustrated by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng. It’s a great story about cooperation, brotherly love, and an evil emperor. (Guess which side wins.)
Here’s a list of the brother’s superpowers:
Brother #1: amazingly acute hearing (I mean really amazing!)
Brother #2: His vision was so good, he wouldn’t have needed a drone to tell him what was going on hundreds of miles away.
Brother #3: Fantastic strength. He puts Paul Bunyan to shame.
Brother # 4: bones of iron!
Brother # 5: He had an unusual superpower. He could make his legs grow as thick and tall as a tree trunk.
Brother # 6 could withstand the most intense heat.
Brother # 7 was the baby of the family. He could cry a river as salty as the ocean.
It was Brother #3 who got them in trouble. It all started when Brothers #1 and 2 noticed a large group of laborers far from their home trying to repair a huge hole in the Great Wall. They were crying out from hunger, weakness and lack of sleep. When Brother #7 threatened to cry a river in sympathy, Brother #3 felt obliged to rush off and help the workers.
You’ll have to read the book to see how the emperor responded when he heard about a man as strong as Brother #3, and then how the brothers cooperated in saving each other from the emperor’s wrath. You can find Margaret Mahy’s delightful book here.
Would you like to be able to fly? Have you ever craved invisibility?
I was puzzled by “If I could fly, how would I know that someone’s in trouble so I could fly off and save them?” This isn’t something you think about in “normal” life or we’d all be in caring professions….so why for a super power? Love your blog though, always well written and interesting
I think, Caroline, the reason I thought about flying off to save someone is that the question was framed using the word superpower, which brought to mind being a superhero. There must be something universally attractive about flying, though, because we all have flying dreams. If I don’t think too much about the details of weather and clothing and being conspicuous to the people on the ground, I can see the attraction of floating through the air and flying high over treetops–maybe being part of a group that goes flying together. All this reminds me of that old favorite question of writers: What if?
As a child, I always wanted to learn how to fly. The fact that I discovered my myopic eyesight early on meant that it remained a yearning. So I’d chose flight and for the most selfish of reasons. It would be useful for travelling to London to visit my daughter and grandchildren as I could avoid the inevitable traffic jams. I also just love the idea of being able to swoop around effortlessly, weightlessly – especially now that I’m old and creaky on terra firma.
If I was invisible, I’d be too tempted to stalk people from my past. I mean we all talk about how we’d love to be a fly on the wall when xyz and this would permit it. And I’m curious (better word than nosey) so it’s best that option isn’t available to me.
It’s fun to see how we all have different ways of thinking about this question. I like the way you just assume that if you could fly, you could swoop around effortlessly. I remember a childhood dream of mine. I had to start out on a little hill and then I had to flap my arms very hard to stay airborn. I imagine it would be satisfying for you to fly over the tops of cars caught in a traffic jam on your way to visit your daughter and grandchildren.
Being a woman of a certain age means I am often invisible. Not that I’m complaining I learn lots just observing. BUT it also means that the idea of flying sounds like fun to me. I could travel, I could swoop and swerve, I could just glide along if I wanted.
I like your positive take on this little game. I’ve had flying dreams. I take off from the top of a grassy hill. I didn’t swoop much. I was too busy flapping my arms.
What a fun, thought-provoking post. I’d go with invisibility. With so much surveillance in the modern world, it would be nice to be undetected. And if you wanted to be a superhero, you could record villains unnoticed and post the video.
Invisibility would also be great for bird watching or wildlife photography.
I hadn’t thought of either of those advantages. I like the bird watching and wildlife photography. You’d also have to be quiet as you approached, though. Very clever to extend your invisibility to online invisibility.
I would choose flight. I feel invisible enough at times. Invisible people can get bumped into in a crowd and “seen” that way. Flight would get me to Europe for free! 😊 I think of flight like a super power because think of what could happen if you were to swoop down and grab something and drop it from a vast height? Also, with flight would probably come increased vision. Think of how far eagles can see.
Lots of people talk about the invisibility of being an older woman. That doesn’t bother me. I’ve never wanted to be the center of attention–although many times in my life that’s been necessary to accomplish another goal.
It sounds like you’ve been observing birds. I smiled at your idea of swooping down and grabbing something and then dropping it from a vast height. I don’t know if it’s cheating to assume that another superpower would go along with the first one. Ha ha.