Question Of The Day

Image found here. 

I was listening to a podcast from This American Life by Ira Glass tonight. It was an older episode so I'm not sure when it was recorded. But at some point during the program, the question was asked, "If you could choose between having two super powers - to be able to fly - or to be able to become invisible - which would you choose? And why?"

Well.

I could have told Ira immediately. I would choose to be able to fly.

Ira's guest went on to discuss the conversations that he had with others when posing the question, and made a generalization that men more often chose the flying power, and women chose to be invisible.

Pfft. Please.

I know what it's like to be invisible. As a chubby middle-aged woman dealing with fatigue, thinning hair, and spotty skin, believe me, I'm pretty invisible to society in general. It's not a pleasant sensation. I remember what it was like to be much younger and much more attractive and much more energetic, and thus - very visible. Ah, but those days are long gone.

No, I would want to fly. I have dreams about flying. I would want to lift my arms and effortlessly float and glide wherever I want to go, instead of eyeballing the distance from my car's parking spot to the automatic door of the supermarket and gauging if I have enough energy to walk to and through the store, and then back to the car without sitting down somewhere or having to mop a bucket-full of perspiration from my face.

I'd want to be able to grab Maggie and Lulu's leashes and just hover overhead as they trotted along the sidewalk. We'd float along for miles and miles until they finally tired out and were glad to head home. Maybe I'd land for long enough to do the responsible pet pooper scooper thing, but after tying the filled baggie to one of the leashes, I'd levitate back to a comfortable cruising altitude and we'd be off again.

I could glide up and down all the staircases in my house with ease, hauling laundry or feather dusting the chandelier or those pesky foyer windows.

As a kid, flying wouldn't have had this much appeal to me. I remember watching Mary Martin's Peter Pan on television, and watching my sister jump off the dresser in our bedroom trying to be like Tinkerbell. Oh, I joined in on the chorus when we all shouted WE DO BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! WE DO BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! But flying? Nah. I always thought that it was pretty stupid for Wendy to take off with a guy wearing green tights.

But now? Well, being much less Earth-bound would be wonderful. Where's that fairy dust when you really need it?