Superpowers

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.

      - Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

 Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.     - Richard Buckminster Fuller

It's happening more and more often.  There's nothing I can do to prevent it.  Sometimes it happens as I am standing in line at the bank or paying for groceries.  (It almost always happens at public events or in public spaces.)  At first I thought it was my imagination - just a trick of the mind; a mistake, perhaps a misunderstanding ? After all, things like this don't happen to ordinary people. 

Wait a minute... who's ordinary???

Funny how we see our selves, isn't it ?  I, myself, am a mass of contradictions!  I am funny but very serious - and not to be taken lightly.  I have a few very rigid viewpoints, but I nearly always give one the benefit of the doubt.  I like socializing and I am interested in people and curious about how others think - yet I spend a great deal of time alone, by choice.  I think of myself as a "good" person who looks for the best in others, and yet has little faith in humanity...  Normal ? ...I suppose... Sane ? ...certainly... But I've never thought of myself as ordinary.  So why should it surprise me that I have developed superpowers...???

Yep.  It's true.  

I know how to become invisible.

Actually - I first became invisible and then I learned how to do it.  The first time, I was sitting in traffic, waiting to pull onto the main road.  Vehicles moved past, sometimes stopping right in front of me, but no one let me merge. No one smiled and waved me in as had always happened in the past. They didn't notice me... they couldn't see me...!  I had disappeared.   The next time it was a shopping trip to Quality Foods.  As I stood waiting to pay for my groceries. the cashier and bagger conversed and joked and rang up my order.  I smiled at one, and then the other; I held out my check - but neither even looked at me.  Without my presence being acknowledged in any way, I found myself back in the parking lot with my cart full of heavy grocery bags.  I was invisible.

The most recent time I disappeared was at my bank branch, located for my convenience in the grocery store lobby.  There were two tellers at their stations but one was on the phone, so a line had formed sort of halfway between the two as customers observed "next person waiting etiquette".  When the teller finished her phone conversation, she looked right through me to the store employee behind me and motioned for him to step up for service.  Wow.  Invisible again!! 

With all this evidence, I have to believe it's true.  And just like the "ordinary" people on that show: Heroes, I plan to step up to the challenge. I will continue to develop and hone my ability to disappear by wearing inauspicious clothing, no makeup and a blank expression  I shall continue to masquerade as just another bland,  unimportant, unassuming, and innocuous middle aged woman.  Those who never look will never see the pretty young woman inside me - the one who is well-read and hip and witty - the one who rescues ladybugs and horses and even tries to dodge butterflies.  They won't know how funny I am, or how kind I can be, or how much love I hold inside.   

They won't suspect that I am anything at all like them.

And little will they know, that I am developing another superpower...  telepathic X-ray vision.  Though they cannot see me, I can see right through them.  As I peer into their self-absorbed and indifferent minds, I plant little seeds... little thoughts... little bits of self'-doubt and self-realization.  I will them to see beyond their biases and assumptions.  I implore them to take stock of themselves and to question their perception of the world around them.  I champion the cause of fresh vision.  

I wish upon them the gifts of empathy and sympathy - for one day they too, will start to disappear.


     ( I posted this seven years ago.  I re-post it shamelessly to let everyone know that though you may catch a glimpse of me know and then, I continue to disappear.)

Detail of "A Singular Path"  mixed media piece by the author of this blog.