When people ask me what superpower I would want, if I could have one, it’s a question I try to take seriously. Flying or invisibility or super strength don’t really intrigue me, but then again heights, being ignored, and lifting were never all that high I my list of things I enjoyed.
For a while, I had mostly decided that I would want the power to make people happy; if that seems like too broad, I would like to be able to know exactly what would make a person happy. Of course, I now think this power would end up being pretty problematic, and there’s a big gap between the two versions.
In the stronger instance, how would my power deal with contradictory happiness conditions? Would there be a set level of happiness that I was able to help people achieve, or could I make some happier than others? Would I be able to set things in motion, or do I have to continually focus to keep the happiness going — i.e. is there going to be a bottleneck on happiness-creation based on my mental stamina? How could I possibly decide who deserved my time and attention? Would it be fairest to go by lottery? By acquaintance? I feel like I would need a really complex system for determining need.
And in the second case, where all I can do is tell what would make a person happy, I now feel like I’d end up forever angry at myself for not being able to do more to make such happiness come about. I feel like I would so much more fully realize just how many people out there weren’t happy, and that this would always be weighing at me, even as I tried to do little things to stem the tide.
But maybe I’m thinking too hard about such powers. Maybe there are people out there who could use them better than I could. Honestly, I’m pretty sure I know a few people who already have pretty similar powers.
Then for a while I thought it would be cool to be able to lend things out, to take a bit of my strength, or my hope, or my very small reserve of courage, and let someone else have it for a little while, when they needed it more than I did. It wouldn’t be a very grand super power, but I think I like that. I don’t think I’m really meant for the big cape or the underwear over the pants (sorry, Quailman). Maybe it’s too low a thing to shoot for when you can have any super power though. I’m not sure.
So I still kind of like that idea, that concept. Maybe I’d still answer with it, if someone asked me. But the more I think about it, I’m not sure I’d really want a power per se. I don’t think the “super” part of “super hero” really grabs me. I think, if I have a chance to look back before the end of things, I’d be satisfied with something more quotidian, more simple. To look back and know that there were people to whom I had been a staunch ally, a listening ear, a good friend.
Even if it is more a small, fleeting thing…somehow, it seems it would suffice.
And so, until the end…I try.
