Friday, March 25, 2011

Superpowers

My daughter and I have a frequent discussion over which superpower is best.  My daughter's recurring, never-changing desire is to fly.  My husband echoes this wish.  "You can't beat flying," he says.  My son vascillates between the ability to time travel and the gift of super-stinky flatulation (he's 10 years old, if you couldn't guess).

Me, I want to to be invisible.  Hands down.  Now, I could go into all sorts of reasons why I would like to be invisible.  Some are more noble than others, but mainly, it would allow me to be the penultimate observer of humankind.  Haven't you always wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation unnoticed?  See what people do when they think know one else is watching?  (And hey...this is a blog by a children's writer...don't go creepy on me). 

As a sometimes-therapist in my social work profession, I try to become invisible.  I remove as much of myself from the conversation as possible and let people reveal themselves little by little.  If I'm a blank, non-judgmental mirror, the results can be dramatic.  But what would I witness if I were completely transparent...a fly on the wall, so to speak.  Would I want to see?

Alas, I'll never know.  I'll have to settle for my too-solid life. 

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