Friday, September 18, 2009

Tagged: Superpower meme

Bad4 http://bad4shidduchim.blogspot.com/ and frumsinglefemale http://frumfemale.blogspot.com/ both tagged me for the superpower meme. At first I was puzzled: you mean I don't already have all the superpowers I want and need? Given how I feel about keeping my feet on the ground, leaping tall buildings in a single bound isn't something I want. As a mom and teacher I already have the power to move objects and people without touching them--one glare/stare and off they go. I can cause the world to go silent just by walking into class and saying "We're having a quiz tonight." And some of the things I would really love to be able to do I wouldn't be able to do because no superpower is going to circumvent God's power.

But if I could have "another" superpower, one that would make me happy, it would be the power to eliminate emptiness, where ever I hear of its being present. The emptiness of a child who goes to sleep hungry because there is no food in the home to eat. The emptiness of a refrigerator in a home where there is no money to buy food. The emptiness of a person's heart who has no one to care for them or about them. The emptiness of a wife's arms because she cannot have children. The emptiness of an older couple's home whose children no longer come or call. The emptiness of the hours of the day that stretch out seemingly forever for the person who has lost a job and cannot find another one. The emptiness that hollows out a person who has nothing to look forward to today, and tomorrow won't be any better.

Come to think about it, that eliminating emptiness superpower is actually out there somewhere and available to not just me, but to all of us. Maybe the superpower I should be asking for is the power to find that emptiness eliminating superpower, to recognize it when I see it. Maybe I don't need a superpower at all but need to open my eyes and really see, open my heart and really feel, open my arms and connect.

Maybe not what bad4 and frumsingle had in mind when they tagged me, but that's what I want. And I wouldn't mind sharing that power with all the rest of you either.

I'm going to break the rules of this meme a bit (hey, it's erev yom tov and you want me to think?!) and for right now I'm going to tag anyone who is reading this and who has a blog. Let us know what superpower you would want.

1 comment:

G6 said...

That was beautiful and inspirational.