I have a confession to make.
When I was little, I really, really,
reaaaalllllyyyy wanted to be a superhero.
I had the whole thing planned out –
from the outfit made of PURE AWESOME, to my powers that GOT THE BAD
GUYS in an INSTANT. I had planned out my epic squad of unbeatable
awesome that would eventually fight to usher in an era of peace,
safety and love for our fellow humans. It was going to be the.
Greatest. Job. Ever.
But then, I kind of realized, that the
superheroes in comics were just kind of...impractical.
Who really wants to be a superhero when
it involves incredibly dorky spandex uniforms, the occasional dorky
romance (yeachh) and really, really melodramatic lines? I mean,
really, save for the flying, it's no wonder there aren't any
superheroes kicking around. I mean – you need to be SUPER to be a
superhero, right? Like...laser-shooting eyes, guns, suuuuper ripped
muscles, or a killer body, and a serious sense of duty and honour, as
well as the ability to execute death-defying (and sometimes
gravity-defying) acrobatics in the blink of an eye. Perfectly. And a
whole cadre of other unattainable qualities.
Plus, add in a muddle, apathetic worldview that crushes any kind of desire for change, and my dream rusted and disappeared after a few years. But, like a lot of things this past year, digging through the dirty basement that is the collective information of my life, I came across some old, dusty treasures. Treasures that had long been forgotten, buried under geographic layers of junk and garbage. You pull them out of the mess with a kind of sacred sentiment, and they stick with you, long after you've happily put them on your dresser. And I have to tell you, I pulled out a giant, glittering, gaudy red metaphorical cape. And I'm kind of loving it.
So guess what?
I have rekindled my dream. I want to be
a Superhero, and I think you can be one too. Even you, sitting there,
restless but helpless and incredibly confused. And you, angry but
incapable of understanding why. And you, dead-end job worker. And
you, anxiety-plagued and scared.
And ANYONE else. Maybe you won't be
flying around wearing capes, shooting lasers out of your eyes (darn
you, physics!) but you can wear a cape! And maybe it won't be as
flashy as we're all used to Superheroes being, but it will certainly
make a difference.
Friends, I propose to you the Squad of
Simple Superheroes. They can't fly. They can't leap across great
chasms, or control lightning. They don't spout off corny one-liners
and chase villains with giant swords and magical freeze-rays. But,
they do fight for a collective cause. They do possess weapons and
powers as awesome as laser eyes and radioactive spider bites.
And they certainly know how to open a can of whoop-ass on anyone
foolish enough to stand in their way.
But we're fighting for bigger things. This isn't fiction. There are millions of things wrong with the world, pages upon pages of injustices and terror being repeated on a daily basis. And you can't pretend that doesn't unnerve you. Or maybe you can - in that case, we have an even bigger battle to fight. We, the Squad of Simple Superheroes, may not be fancy, we might not be lifting cars and flying, but we can change the world. One simple act at a time.
Care to join me and my incredible fight
to change the world? I promise plenty of regular meetings (with cookies!), a really,
really cool headquarters, some really meaningful challenges, a
regular exercise routine to keep your laser-shooting muscles in
perfect shape, and potentially some fantastic capes.
Because, come on, I know you're just itching to make a difference.
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