Yesterday, Tonya wrote about a dinner party discussion she had where she posed the question “which would you prefer: to be invisible or to have the ability to fly?” I got all serious on her. Because I really don’t want either.
I was telling this to my daughter who is home for the holidays and she asked if not flying or invisibility, which super power would I like to lay a claim on?
Can it be a talent? I want an extraordinary talent. Can I have that? – I asked her.
She sighed in the way that people do when you are not cooperating with them and generally being difficult.
Typically, when people play this game, they refer to super hero powers of the “read minds,” “instant transport,” “strength,” “cause things to freeze or burn,” that kind of thing.
I don’t want any of those, I told her.
You don’t want instant transport? So that you don’t have to waste hours getting yourself from one place to another?
No. If getting there is interminable, then the arrival is more rewarding. If it’s cold outside, then entering a warm room is more pleasurable. Besides, where is the exercise in instant transport?
Pick another then. Surely there is something you could live with. Fly, read minds, twist metal, you can pick one, can't you? It's just a game.
No. I want none of it. Patience. Can I ask for an inhuman dose of it?
The universal conclusion has to be that I’m not good at playing games. I cause trouble and make people gather up their belongings and go home prematurely. Okay, fine. I have myself a New Year’s Resolution. Less stick in the mud, more go with the flow.
3 hours ago
If I were you, I'd give serious thought to time travel. If that were available, I'd be all over it. Wouldn't you like to be able to see what your parents were like as kids? Or watch how they were when they first met each other? Or how they reacted on the day you were born? And, wouldn't it be interesting to go back and revisit your own life? All those memories fading away . . . I'd love to recapture some of them.
ReplyDeleteOh, for Heaven's sake, Nina! I can't believe you just called yourself a "stick in the mud" and assert that you have to be more "go with the flow" -- especially after all your recent posts from France, when, as I recall, your itinerary was the very definition of "go with the flow."
ReplyDeleteI think I know what you mean, though, because I do exactly the same thing: even knowing something is supposed to be "just for fun" or on hearing something that's supposed to be a joke, I can't help but take it seriously. It's just the way I am. It's not that I can't joke, or laugh -- I do both, frequently. It's just that some of these things go completely over my head. Or perhaps they get stuck in there, I don't know. Maybe it's a Polish thing.
Some of my most vividly remembered dreams of childhood involved flying. It was simply wonderful, and I hated to awaken. Time travel? Wherever you go, there you are. Invisibility? Why dream of being a voyeur? It's flying for me! My 60th birthday approaches rapidly, and I find I understand more deeply than ever that Peter Pan was absolutely correct.
ReplyDeleteTime and Again is one of my favorite books. I've read it several times.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Peggy Sue Got Married does a good job with time travel, especially the scene where Peggy Sue visits with her (now deceased) grandparents while she is stuck in the past. That scene left me sobbing.
What's with all of you? You have those powers — imagination. Use it; things happen.
ReplyDeleteAthenius
Last night at the dinner table two ideas were put forth that actually appeal to me: having a perfect memory (I know, I know, remembering the pain as well as the gains; oh well) and eating all without health/weight consequences. Trivial? Perhaps. That's as far as I'll go to step out of the human race.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey, I, too have had dreams about flying all my life -- that I can do it; it comes as a surprise, I tell myself I'm dreaming, but I know I'm not (even though I am) -- off I go.
I'd say your friend came over and gave you an invisible qift!: The implausible wish nature's powers cannot supply. These freinds have cowed you into submission, or the desire to be something more to their comfort. How sad for you and nice for them.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand these juvenile wish questions when asked of me. Of course, knowing this, all my friends have deserted me to ask other people juvenile questions.
That's alright.
Andrew: To say that Nina has been "cowed into submission" is a gross exaggeration of this dialogue about special powers. The implication that she has been bullied into responding to the question is also wholly unwarranted.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, on it's face, the question posed is a silly one. Yet, when considered more deeply, the question (in my view) reveals a little bit about one's desires, fears and aspirations. Nina is a very close friend and an interesting person. At most, the goal was to get her to engage on the topic -- even if just for fun.
While your friends may no longer ask you juvenile questions, that is not true for Nina. She is willing to engage in discussions that are silly, immature, and goofy. Indeed, sometimes she is the one who brings up the silly topic for discussion. She doesn't limit herself to topics of a serious and philosophical nature. Certainly, she is quite capable of debating the situation in Iraq or what's wrong with the current administration, but she is also capable of being playful and irreverent. That's one aspect of her personality that is endearing. And there's nothing particularly "sad" about her friends and family trying to draw out that playful side of her.
"Juvenile questions"? Please! What could possibly be more important? The economy or something?
ReplyDeleteI find it very striking that you have no interest in any conventional super power. Wow.
I'm intrigued by invisibility; and yes, it's because it would provide ample opportunity to indulge my voyeuristic tendencies (but what an opportunity to learn about people!). Also, I've thought it would be great to have the power, in ray-beam form, to make people realize exactly what they sound like when they're saying something appalling -- or alternatively, a chill-out field, that would overcome people with a sense of how, like, cool everything is, man, and how about we gotta just relax, man, cool...
There, you see? If more of you came from hardy peasant stock you wouldn't be talking this non-sense.
ReplyDeletePressure to go along needn't appear dramatic to cause change. A little rain for a thousand years can change a mountainside.
Imagination is fine, take it from someone who's had to use it at a young age to go around feelings of powerlessness, to feel whole outside conventions.
Reality has been my greatest challenge.