Conversations For Transformation:
Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More
Super Powers
Mumm Cuvée, Rutherford, California, USA
February 28, 2020
"If God had meant man to fly, he would have given him wings."
...
At least in our folk lore, mythology, and cartoonography, human beings
are capable of exercising so-called super powers. Their
entrenched place in our culture reflects perhaps our deepest wishful
thinking. They're analogous to what we yearn for in order to transcend
and to
triumph
over life's threats, cross-currents, and challenges.
We're not just talking about super powers of the
walking on water
ilk, analogous perhaps to our yearning to be light on our feet ie to be
(colloquially speaking) not heavy and to float over
adversity. It's in a similar vein to being (analogously) light, that
there's the super power to
fly
(that Icarus famously took too far - which in itself could be an
analogy for something else) and the super power to levitate, touted by
the ancient yogis as de rigueur and reported in the texts,
yet never actually validated or corroborated by science (rather, what
has been validated and corroborated, is fervently, energetically
hopping with legs enpretzeled in the lotus position).
The realm of cartoonography brings its own quota of super powers: the
super power to see through lead (to see through anything
actually, for that matter) with X-ray vision (Superman), the super
power to
breathe underwater
(Aquaman), the super power to leap huge distances in a single bound
(the Incredible Hulk), not to mention an entirely new raft of super
powers demonstrated more than admirably by the Fantastic Four, each of
which also reflects and represents our innermost deepest desires to be
free of and to
triumph
over that which limits and binds us to our seemingly mere corporeality.
In our imagination we wave
magic wands
and cast spells. Such super powers are more than generously promoted by
authors and film-makers and
boys
named Harry. Sorcerers and wizards with super powers are the stuff of
ancient and modern stories and legends (which means they may be true,
and they may not be). All this, plus the stuff of cartoonography, lives
in the realm of fantasy - which means we know it's not true, yet we
live vicariously through it as if it is true or as if it could
be true.
And then there are those rare, actual, demonstrable super powers: the
super power to recall complex sequences of numbers in extraordinarily
minute detail, by genius savants epitomized by Rain Man,
the super power to endure frigid temperatures ie to control body heat
and heart rate. Oh, and thespians would include
expert
acting
as a super power: it's the super power to literally become someone
else, which the science fiction genre also advances, calling it the
super power of shape-shifting.
Look: in the end, the truth is there's only one super power which
really is real, is not a fantasy, and is available to everyone. And
it's more than it's merely available. It's that it's worth aspiring to,
practicing, and owning. Indeed it's the only super power that's always
been available to each and every human being who's ever
walkedthe face
of
this Earth,
and it's always been available to everyone equally, realized or not,
for which neither folk lore, mythology, cartoonography, imagination,
magic,
nor drama are required. It's the super power available to each and
every human being to generate on demand (ie at will)
being fully present
and completely engaged in any situation. It's the super power to
bring who we really are forward and to
presence it fully
and completely, regardless of and no matter what the circumstances.
It's this one super power that stands out, towering over and beyond all
others, this extraordinary super power to which every human being has
access: to bring forth and to
presence the being of human
being,
for which neither folk lore nor mythology nor cartoonography are
required. It's this super power that has the ability to turn an
ordinary life and living, into something truly extraordinary, to
transform living the drab mundane into a fiercely remarkable adventure.
This is our true super power.
