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Seeing the Superheroes

There are no ordinary people walking the planet.

Every human being, whether from close proximity or from a great distance—can have tremendous power in our lives:

the power to speak words that give us wings or ones that crush us beneath their weight,
to reinforce our belonging or magnify our isolation,
to be the one remaining thread we hang by or the straw that finally breaks us,
to propel us through one more hour—or to leave us certain we cannot and should not.

And it can be easy to focus only on the later; the discouragers, the hope stealers, the dream killers, the ones who seem to confirm for us that this place has surely darkened. Their presence can be so loud and so disheartening and so disruptive, that it can sap us of our resolve and obscure the sun from view.

But there are radiant people of brilliant light still inhabiting this place, and I am trying to make sure I see them and treasure them; these ordinary superheroes who are daily saving me.

Today I looked and I noticed them everywhere:
the dozen buoyant teenagers I sat with in the church playground over a breakfast of sugar and caffeine,
my tireless social media activist friend who perseveres in the fight for complete strangers,
the lady in the checkout line who asked me how I was—and really seemed to want to
know,
the college graduates who walked out of their ceremony to leverage their moment and make their voices heard,
Lorde dancing defiantly on the BBMAs,
my mother, whose strength after the loss of my father seems boundless,
the invisible mad genius who made the carne asada tacos that weakened my knees,
the friend I’ve had for three decades, whose kindness never wavers,

the two beautiful children in my living room who aren’t letting anyone tell them who or what they can be.

Today I found myself dwelling on the good people—and in difficult days like these, we need to do this for our very sanity and survival.

We need to see the superheroes; to recognize the people who carry us, who lift us, who steady us when we are overcome by all that feels so very wrong. Each of us reach moments when we find ourselves at the limits of the weight we can bear, the bad news we can absorb, the cruelty we can endure. And when we are in those places of desperation, and we share space with people of compassion and decency and love and courage; in a way that is sometimes ambiguous and sometimes quite clear—they save us. They swoop into our living rooms, news feeds, and peripheral vision at just the right time, and remind us that we are not in this life alone. Sometimes that can be enough. 

On dispiriting days we need to let ourselves be saved by someone else; to let another’s reassuring presence rescue us, to allow their lives to be the catalyst for our hope in those moments when hope is hard to come by.

And the truth is, we all have this same potentially saving power. Because of this, we need to continue to speak and care and love and forgive, and do our work and raise our families and live well, and look into the eyes of strangers and to ask how they are and really want to know—because other people are watching us and counting on us. For someone else, either at close proximity or from a great distance, and in ways we may never realize—we might be the difference in the day.

So look around you today and take note of the people who are sustaining you; those who through humor, goodness, talent, empathy, or righteous anger, show you heroic things and give you the strength to go on. Look carefully at the good people crossing your path and you may notice a cape trailing behind.

See the superheroes who are saving you, and be encouraged.

 

 

 

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