There was this idea I came to Earth with. Presumably an archaic aspect of my soul given its intrinsic disposition in regard to my “I am-ness”. Its subtle annotations modestly boasted of its grandeur; an acorn innocently lying on the ground next to an oak tree. But is there innocence in greatness or intent?
A simple black trash bag tied like a single strand of shoelace lined my neck. As I ran through my great grandmother’s house, the wind ever so gently lifting the edges of the trash bag gave me hope that I would free myself from the bondage of gravity. The faster I ran, the more the bag lifted. I felt lighter with every step. Is this the day that it finally happens? A feverish internal dialogue stoked the flames of motivation that would hopefully catapult me into the stratosphere.
Out the back door I went with a symbolic “swoosh,” like the ones you hear in those superhero movies where they fly past bystanders so fast that it remakes the famous Marilyn Monroe “let me hold down my dress from the wind while looking cute” photo. With the door no longer blocking my momentum, it was to the banister, off the porch, and into the sky with a single leap.
For one-one hundredth of a second, gravity would always forget I existed. No matter how short term this natural law’s memory was, for a time I knew what it was like to fly. I was a superhero, and no one could tell me any differently.
To this day I still hold this seemingly contrived notation to be true. There is within me this child with a trash bag tied around his neck, looking for a banister to leap from. I haven’t forgotten that I can do the seemingly impossible. Because of him, I believe. But somewhere along the path of trials and tribulations, heartbreaks and past due bills, failed ventures and unhealed traumas, the other superheroes of the world have forgotten the child within that believes anything is possible.
Our fears act as shackles confining us to the ground. Life becomes akin to living in an underground den. We take on a persona with an “Allegory of the Cave” disposition. We are prisoners indeed! When one is shackled for an elongated period of time, it can become quite natural to develop a homeostasis with all things associated with the abandonment of hope (anger being of key interest for our topic). Herein lies a perplexing psychological state wherein an individual will elect for the familiarity found in suffering rather than the freedom found in the unknown.
“Oh, I’m not angry!” you may say with an exclamation mark and a furrowed brow, but then why is it that with any talk of differing political ideologies you suddenly emulsify deeply with the smaller, younger and viler counterpart of the doctor from Soho in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic work? I once heard a story of a man whose contrived vein resulted in his being locked away in a prison cell. The ironic thing about it all was that the cell door was never locked.
If there is something about your external world that causes an internal response within you that is inundated with fear, you have the opportunity to propagate transformation. Honesty with oneself is of primary importance hereof. In the masquerade ball of life, fear wears the mask of anger. If you are angry, you are fearful. If you wish to uncover the cause of your fears, you will have to go deeply within yourself. Perhaps there is a child within you, not with a trash bag cape around his/her neck but one whose only companion is abandonment.
Other’s tenets concerning abortion cause an internal response within you that is inundated with affront. Why not let that anger, that fear motivate you? Are you motivated enough to petition a member of Congress? Does your passion, your fervor, stimulate you adequately, so much so that you advocate feverishly for policy change? When it comes to this subject, are you spirited enough to start a non-profit whose aim is to assist women in the socio-economic class who are most affected by pro or anti-abortion bills? Or does your zeal herein merely encumber you, resulting only in back-and-forth Facebook comments resembling a second grade name calling competition.
You find yourself at odds with your neighbor, an opposing political party agenda, and a candidate for President on the issue of immigration. The issue invokes “seeing red” anger within you. Does your indignation inspire you enough to join the Border Patrol? Does your zeal resemble the easterly winds that sea captains of old employed to discover new worlds? Are you therefore pushed to research the underlying causes of immigration then submit those findings to Congress? Has your devotedness with Jiminy Cricket-like persuasion ever galvanized you adequately, inciting you to travel to Mexico to imbed yourself culturally with those seeking refuge so that you can get a better understanding of the why’s? Or are you limited to the effects of oppositional defiant disorder, where a child acts out when it doesn’t get what it wants?
Perhaps you cannot come to grips with why humans seem to care so very little for the planet we live on. From seeing wildlife suffer from the effects of pollution to feeling the continued warming of the planet, you become incensed with any reference to the issue of climate control. Does your exasperated state of tangibility rouse you into action? Have you gathered in your community/city/town with other like-minded individuals to create a think tank that shares ideas with representatives whose aim is to create sustainability on the local level? Has your enthusiasm inspirited you to such a great degree that you have refrained from buying any plastic products? Or are you resigned to watching Presidential debates, your motivation only pushing you to clamor at a screen?
If you don’t like the direction our country is going in, do something positive about it to shift the tide. If you are doing something right now, do more. Try to remember a time in your life when you accomplished grandiosity with a modicum of effort. Change equates to compounding effort with time over a protracted period.
How long will it take the superheroes of the world to answer the proverbial Bat Signal in the sky we all see today?
