If anyone watches NBC’s Heroes on Monday nights, you’re very familiar with the above phrase. I’m also guessing that even if you’ve never seen Heroes, you’ve heard the phrase somewhere, even if it’s only in a passing ad for an upcoming episode. NBC says that their gem is a show about “Ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities.” Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?
The cheerleader is pretty much indestructible, but remember she’s the one they have to save. The Japanese man bends time and space, the Congressman flies, the artist can paint the future (and it looks bleak, folks, let me tell you.). The cop can hear others’ thoughts, the Internet stripper has a nasty evil twin and an ex-husband with some weird liquid-rubber-melting-through-walls thing. The male nurse? Well he can pick up anyone else’s powers when he’s near them. It certainly doesn’t sound like there’s much boredom with this crew. This is why we watch it.
So, save the cheerleader. Okay, I get it. In the show, the self-healing, blonde ball of bounce is the common message, and somehow, if she’s dead the world is coming to an end. Apocalyptic end. Kaboom. All because of a dead cheerleader?
If I wanted to let everyone think how deep and philosophical I was, I’d go on about how we all need to save the cheerleader in us, the little “Yay team!’ crew that’s in our soul and pops up to tell us when we’ve done well, even when nobody else notices. That would probably be a good thing to write about.
But instead, whenever I watch this show, I ignore the deeper meanings, sinister undertones and the Big-Brother-isms, along with the growing body count. Instead, I am caught up in the wonder of If I had a superpower…
Seriously. Would I use it for good or for evil? What superpower would I want to suddenly discover I had? The mind spins with possibilities.
There’s mind-reading, that could work. But who wants to hear the negative stuff, and what if it’s (gasp!) about me? No, thank you. Besides, I’d never want to know what my friends really think of my collection of Uggs.
Flying? What a rush that would be, but I’m way too clumsy. Add wings to that and it’s a natural disaster. Still, it might be fun to try, just to say I did it.
What if I could bend time and space? That has serious potential. It brings a whole new light to if-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now…yes, my plan is formulating now. Oh, I’d better be careful with that one. The brief taste of the dark side was a little heady.
Maybe that’s why I don’t have a superpower. Whether I remember everything I read or am suddenly super-flying-monkey-woman, with great power comes great responsibility, and I probably just couldn’t handle it.
I guess I’ll keep practicing at being a ‘regular’ human. It’s been forty-one years and I’m still tripping over things. Maybe when I get this walking thing down I’ll get a promotion.
