Lisa Hickey received some gifts a long time ago. To her, they seemed like Super Powers.
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Someone emailed me moments ago and asked me to fix something that was broken. I fixed it, and replied “Done!” He shot me back an email that said “You ARE fast!” The ticker on my email said his original email had been sent 1 minute prior.
Allan Mott, our Question of the Day Columnist, asked recently “Which Super Power Would You Want – Super Speed or Flying?” I loved that question. I was thinking to myself: “Flying” when I saw how many people adamantly were insisting Super Speed was — without a question — the way to go. And then I realized — “wow, I know why I can’t decide. I’m actually so grateful I have the ability to do both.”
Now, before you say, “that’s the most grateful insane person I’ve ever met” — let me explain. My Super Speed and My Ability to Fly only seem super-human — and maybe only to me. I get my limitations. I can’t yet break the law of physics. I can solve problems in under a minute, but they have to be teensy-tiny problems. And flying — true that the only time I’m actually off the ground is on an airplane. But what joy that has brought me in my life! Many of my very best memories – so many! — have involved lifting myself off the ground to a new place that I’ve never been before. The bottom of Death Valley or the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The winds of Aruba or the smoky blues joints of Chicago. There’s no better feeling to me than the one when I step off a plane in a place I’ve never been before and say, “Wow, I’m here.” If I had all the money I could every want, the first thing I would do is fly more. I’d go everywhere.
And Super Speed? I work fast. Sleep fast. I run to Central Park every day and bike as fast as I can around the perimeter. I fall in love in the blink of an eye. Laugh quickly. Talk fast enough to trip over my own tongue.
Speed wasn’t always my thing. There were times long ago I was frozen in inaction. I was so afraid of doing the wrong thing, I’d do nothing. I’d risk nothing, give nothing. The Super Power I wished for most back then? Invisibility.
But instead, somewhere along the way, the powers of super-speed and flight were bestowed upon me.
And for that I am very, very grateful.
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Photo: cpyles / flickr
Lisa, have you ever neatly laid an imitation fly on the water just beyond the nose of a salmon? Your article perfectly baits the hook with a remark that “somewhere along the line” you completely changed personality. Wow! When? How? Why? More, more, more!