Tuesday, May 29, 2012

What would your super power be?

 
There is that classic question, "Would you rather have super powers that would let you fly or become invisible?"  My husband said that it was a stupid question, because of course the answer would be to fly.  I replied that I would choose invisibility, because at least that would have practical uses (if you were a spy.)  Having the power to fly can't take you anywhere that something else can't also do.  Maybe you get there quicker.  My thing is that I really don't do heights, so why would I want to fly.  But maybe if I could fly I would no longer be afraid of heights.  Hmmm.

I had always thought if I could have a super power I would like to be able to make traffic lights turn green for me or find a good parking space.  At least those things are practical.  But today something occurred to me to change my mind.

I was at the library and wishfully checked out several books.  I say wishfully, because the reality is that I probably won't even start reading them before they are due back at the library.  The ones I do start I will probably not have time to finish.  I frequently read more than one book at a time (just about one for each room of the house that I hang out in) and it can sometimes take me more than a year to finish one book.

I wish I had more time to read, but also the slowness of getting through a book is because I do read really slowly.  I don't enjoy reading a book faster than I can hear the words in my head.  I took a speed reading course once in college.  So I know that I can read for information quickly and occasionally I will try and do it, but it hurts my eyes and takes a lot of effort to do.  I have fallen to listening to audio books, because I can do that while I'm doing housework.

All that aside, I realized today what I would really love to be my super power.  I looked at all these books on the shelf and would have picked out a dozen (I only got three.)  I thought to myself as I looked at the covers (front and back) of these books, "What is your story?"  I really wanted to know the story of those books, but I knew I would never have the time to find them out.  I would love to have the ability to touch a book and immediately know it's story if I chose to.  That would be my super power.  What would you want your super power to be?