Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Fantasies, Lack-Luster Lives & the Superhumans We Long To Be

We have been taught by our parents, friends, authors, film-makers and media that Superhumans only exist in the minds of their creators and the film we watch them on. They are a fantasy dreamed up for our entertainment so we can forget about our boring, mundane, normal, lack-luster lives. From time forgotten humans have been trying to fill the boredom. From inventing stories about the stars to watching so-called reality TV we have created worlds that far outmatch the one we are forced to live in every day.

The characters that inhabit these worlds are far more interesting than any of us mere mortals. They do things and say things and have things we only dream of. We watch them with glitter in our eyes and try to imitate them. These creatures, hatched from our own minds, who are inspired by our lives yet so removed from them, inspire us to do things and say things and have things that we so long for but are scared to actually obtain. And even though they come from us and who we are we will never hope to be them.

They are a fantasy. And fantasies are sacred. Probably the only sacred thing left in this world.

Supermen, Superwomen, Superlives only exist in creative imagination.

This is what we are taught.

We are taught to look for these Superbeings in space, in the future, in the past, in other universes, in politics, on TV, in books, in news headlines, in mysterious events. A whole genre is devoted to them: The Comic Book. We believe in these fictional characters more than we believe in ourselves. And we let them tell us how to live our lives, what to believe, who to trust. And we let them choose the villains too. And how to fight them.

Superhumans can be a positive influence or a crutch. While believing in them makes you want to be a better person they also make you forget how much power you have already. They also can become so big and amazing that they over-shadow the wonderful things that are in your life right now.

Look up to the Superhumans in your life, both real and imagined, let them inspire you to do great things. But make sure that, above all, they are inspiring you to find the Superhuman inside yourself.

2 comments:

  1. Apart from fiction, we don't see everyday superhumans since we all have flaws, however we all have some great people around us we can admire and learn from.

    I agree with you Sara: especially "Look up to the Superhumans in your life, both real and imagined, let them inspire you to do great things. But make sure that, above all, they are inspiring you to find the Superhuman inside yourself."

    I think one of the keys is to appreciate and learn from the "super" part of our neighbors and to at times to overlook the less inspiring "human" parts of our heroes.

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  2. Hi David,

    Thanks for reading my blog and commenting. I appreciate the feedback.

    I agree that we can appreciate and learn from the super parts of others and it would help if we could also over the human parts like you said. But I think, more than that, it would help if we realized that the human parts are just as beautiful as the super parts.

    Anger can be beautiful if it helps to get your feelings out in order to talk about them. (But most of us are scared of anger.)

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