Karen Foley
Lynn Raye Harris
Ellen Hartman
Diana Holquist
Samantha Hunter
Shirley Jump
Dee Tenorio
Jeannie Watt
Superpowers!
This weekend we took our kids to see Spider-Man 3. It wasn’t nearly as good as Spider-Man 2, which I thought was the best of the three movies (being an author, I like a movie that has clear goal, motivation and conflict for its characters) but it sure kept my eight-year-old son enthralled.
One area the movie was inventive, though, was in its villains. There were some pretty different villains this time around, too. One created out of some kind of creepy crawly goo that fell from space and instantly evil-ized everything it latched onto (and if the character was already evil, as in the case of Venom, it amped up the evil and added that nice scary dental work). Another guy was some kind of silicone/sand kind of guy whose powers were sort of hard to figure out. Sandstorm one minute, growing, pounding angry guy the next. He could slip in and out of places at will, but still have the strength to carry bags of money.
Hey, I didn’t say it was plausible. Just cool.
I left the movie thinking about super powers. Not what kind I wish I could have if I could have some (though if I did have super powers, I’d have to wear my SuperGirl undies that my friend Mel gave me for my 
35th birthday). I mean, we all have that thought from time to time. You know, the wish you could fly so you could get to your destination faster. Or wish you had a clone to do the housework, or wish you had invisibility and could really hear what that nasty PTL mom said about you behind your back.
The super powers I mean are the ones that I see in other people. Maybe it was because this was also confirmation weekend for my eldest, so I heard a lot of tearjerker stories about families that really made me look at mine in a new way (and think, wow, I have to try harder here), as well as appreciate my own blessings, but I really admired the super powers of the people around me. The dad who is in the middle of an impossible battle with cancer yet still goes to every school event with a smile. The grandmother raising her grandson because the parents failed to step up to the plate for one reason or another. The kids who were “different” and battled ostracism or judgment and came through the experience stronger.
They made me want to be a “super” stronger person. Made me wish I had some of their super powers of compassion and strength, even though they were eighth graders and much younger than me. I don’t remember being anything like that when I was in eighth grade. In fact, I know I was much more immature and my most memorable moment was making fun with my friends of the way my Science teacher pronounced “Uranus” when we studied the planets.
Who have been the super power people in your life? How have they inspired you? Or, if there haven’t been any, what super power would you wish to have?
Shirley
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Hi Shirley
Hmmm.
There have been a lot of people I'd want to choose, as I've been fortunate to know a lot of great, accomplished people, but in the way of thinking about someone I know who's overcome a lot of obstacles and has really been an inspiration for me as well as many other people, I have to say my good friend Mi. We've been pals for about 20 years, and when I met her we were in a junior college creative writing class together. Severe macular degeneration left her legally blind in her mid-thirties, changing her life forever. She had to quit her job as an Exec Secretary, and suffered a major depression as the majority of her eyesight drifted away. Even something as simple as reading, which she loved, wasn't easy any more.
And then, she drew up a very deep well of strength and decided to move forward -- she went back to school, which is where we met, and we became good friends, working through our junior, four-year, and eventually our graduate degrees together. I would drive her to school because she lived out in the country and transportation was a challenge, but she never complained, and she never let anything stop her -- nothing. When I couldn't drive her, she would use several public transportation routes and busses to get where she needed to be, to school, 35 miles away from her home. We shared a lot of hours in the car together, talked about everything, and she's been there with me through most of the major events in my life -- my son, my divorce, my mother's death, and meeting Mike and remarrying. We've really been side by side for all that time, which is amazing. She's even one of the only people who ever read the first romance ms I ever wrote back in my twenties, when I subbed to Desire and was rejected for having too much sex in the ms. ;)
In school, she not only did all of her work, but she excelled at it, never letting her lack of eyesight hold her back. She graduated every level with high honors, straight through her doctorate. She never used her disability as a crutch or asked for special treatment or made excuses -- not ever.
Now she not only is a tenured professor at a school we both got our four-year at, but she's driving! Mi being Mi, she never gives up and always kept on the latest technology, and now she has a new device that actually allows her to drive certain distances in the daytime. Seriously, this woman is amazing. She took care of her mother who died of cancer, her sister who recently died of a stroke, two daughters and her husband, and she just keeps going, and keeps a very positive outlook on life.
She's inspired me in lots of ways, but especially when I might think I can't do something or have some limitation, thinking about Mi makes me shut up pretty quickly and just get the job done. I'm sure people with her condition or even lesser things would have crumpled up and decided to just give up, but she didn't. She's living proof that nothing has to hold you back if you don't want it to, and in fact, you can take just about anything and turn it into something better than what you had before.
I should probably buy her a pair of superhero undies.... hmmm, maybe not. ;>
Sam