I’ve often wished that God would grant me superpowers, like those in the comic books, so that I could use them to help make this world a happier, healthier place to live in. It hasn’t happened yet, at least not that I’m aware of it. But it’s got me thinking lately that maybe the reason why has something due to the message behind what Uncle Ben was saying to Peter Parker in the Spider-Man comics when he said “With great power, comes great responsibility…”
Up until not too long ago, I wasn’t very good with responsibility. People couldn’t rely upon me as I was too deeply focused on my addictions and obsessions. I also had a tremendous ego and was completely selfish and self-centered. Everything I did for anyone usually had some type of price tag attached to it. I can only imagine what I would have done in those moments if I had some type of superpower given to me.
Take X-Ray vision for example. In those totally self-absorbed days, I would have used that power to enhance my sexual addiction with every person I found attractive in this world and ignored any type of responsibility with that type of gift.
How about super strength? In those days where I didn’t care about selflessness and only looked out for the accolades from others, I most likely would have used that power for hire or sought fame from using it. I also might have used it to bully some of those who were bullying me at the time and ended up seriously hurting them in the process.
Invisibility, super speed, mind-reading, it doesn’t really matter what the power would have been, I would have taken any of them in all those egocentric moments and either enhanced my addiction prone life or sought money and notoriety from using them.
A lot has changed for me in the past few years. And while I would still love to have superpowers these days, my use of them would be a lot different now. I could see myself being a lot more like those heroes in the comic books such as when Peter Parker became Spider-Man. He had to learn the hard way what his Uncle Ben was truly saying when he abused his abilities for ego based purposes and lost his uncle tragically because of it. I’ve always admired the hero he developed into after that tragic event, as it was never based upon his ego after that.
In the television show Heroes that came out a bunch of years ago, people started evolving and developing these superhuman abilities. The show portrayed how those people went in one of several directions upon finding out they had a unique gift. Some followed in Spider-Man’s footsteps and became silent heroes who never took the glory for anything. Others thought their gift was a curse and tried to avoid using it at all or looked constantly for its cure. And then there were those who became so ego-based with what they could do with their new ability, they caused more damage and destruction to the world when using it.
Given the state of our world today with how many tragedies occur every single moment that range from a minor to a major scale, the presence of superheroes, like in the comic books, could really help to reduce them. Unfortunately though, they could also end up increasing them just as much. As for every humble hero like Spider-Man or Superman who were examples of the true do-gooders, there were also those like the Dr. Octopus and General Zod who sought control of others and put themselves on raised pedestals because of their abilities.
Maybe this is why we haven’t evolved enough yet enough in our world to develop any of these enhanced super abilities. Because if we did, we might tear ourselves apart at the seams with the amount of self-centeredness that still is present in so many of us. I’m convinced that if life does exist outside this planet, which I believe it does, that there are worlds who do have people living actively with superpowers and handling them with great responsibility and humility. But in our world, granting the wrong person with powers such as what Superman has, could lead to even greater global catastrophes than what we already are having to deal with.
Hopefully one day, this planet will evolve to a level where EVERYONE is more concerned in helping each other out much more so than boosting their own egos, controlling others, and watching out for themselves. As when a day like that comes, maybe then God will open up those doorways within us for superhero like abilities to manifest…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
