Are Super Heroes Real?

Forgive me for jumping on the super hero bandwagon, but when I find myself inspired by circumstances around me, well, I follow that inspiration.

As anyone who has been to a summer blockbuster knows, when the lights come up and the credits roll to the sound of the soaring, blood-pumping soundtrack , it is incredibly easy to believe that the world in which you just spent the last two-plus hours might just tag along when you walk out the theater door.

In some respects, perhaps it does just that…

Heroes duke it out with villains, heroes inexplicably manage to hold their own against unbelievable odds, villains go home with bloody noses and bruised egos.  Roll credits.  Dozens or hundreds of moviegoers leave pumping their fists and saying “yeah,that movie rocked!”

After I saw Days of Thunder, I was certain that I could become a race car driver.  After Superman?  I could fly.  Raiders of the Lost Ark?  You guessed it – mind-boggling whip brandishing skills were a mere daydream away…

But what really comes along for the ride after these films is the feeling – that “holy crap that was unbelievably cool and I could SO do that if I wanted to” feeling.  It’s the feeling we get when right triumphs over wrong, good over evil, the underdog over the really mean kid.  It’s the feeling that we can accomplish just about anything if we have enough heart, enough mental focus, and enough really cool stuff to help us get by.

This brings me sort of to my point.  Think about all the super heroes, and all the “regular” heroes in any big blockbuster movie you can think of…in just about every case, our heroes – super or otherwise – are pretty much regular guys (or girls) underneath.  Even the ones with the really cool super powers usually start out as just another human and something strange and wonderful happens to transform them.  And the bad guys?  Regular dudes with some strange and not-so-wonderful transformation at work.

My pop culture favorites?  Have to go with Batman and Ironman.  Why?  These two – to me at least – are just these really smart, really tortured and completely misunderstood souls who just happen to have bazillions of dollars and a whole lot of really cool toys.  But they’re just men.  No x-ray vision, no natural super-human physical strength, no powers of flight.  All the stuff they do is the result of something they dreamed up – something the mind conceived.  They see a need, create a prototype or five, and then go get the job done.  The most powerful part – at least for me – is that they believe that what they set out to accomplish is achievable.  And then they do it.

So in that regard, I propose that anyone – any mere human – has the potential to be a super hero.  Of course, any mere human also has the potential to be a super villain.  The choice is ours alone.  The mind is a great and powerful thing.  It has the power to build and the power to destroy.   That dual nature is precisely what makes it so powerful.  But the best part is that this Super Power is something attainable and useable by anyone who wants it.  I have tried to make myself believe that it is not possible to overcome great odds simply by wanting to and by believing that desire into reality.  I can’t do it.  There is simply too much evidence to the contrary.

My real life favorites?  I am going to reserve the right not to reveal identities here.  Why?  The number of people and the reasons I consider these people Heroes are both varied and lengthy.  Should I begin my list here, I might feel compelled by my enthusiasm to reveal far too many specific details about private circumstances that are not my own to share.  And I am certain that the parties involved are simply far too humble and would insist that they are nothing special.  Aahhh…the Super Hero mask at work.  Let it suffice to say that in each case, my admiration is about exactly the same thing that makes me think Batman and Ironman are cool.  It is about regular, ordinary people using the unique power that resides in each of them to overcome immeasurable odds, fight for their very lives, and become absolutely anything that they imagine.  The soundtrack of their stories is just as sweeping and soaring as any summer blockbuster; it is the sound of doubt and hesitation, fear of the unknown, tears of frustration and tears of joy, shouts of “yes” and “hooray” and “thanks be to God.”  It is the sound of life unfolding exactly as it should.