Super Powers - Activate!

(I'm moving old posts over to my current blog host. This one originally posted July 30, 2011)

A common conversation starter in certain circles (yes, the geeky circles) is “what would you choose as a mutant/super power?” I’ve gone through many possible choices over the course of my life. Sometimes I want to be able to heal like Wolverine. I’m not really much of a risk taker, though, so that would be wasted on me.  Other times I think it would be cool to shoot freakin’ lasers out of my eyes like Cyclops. That would be especially handy when jerks cut me off on the highway. While it probably doesn’t count as a super power, I’d love to be as freakishly intelligent as Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark (and their financial well-being would just be icing on the cake!)

Some popular powers have never been on my list. I’ve never wanted to be able to fly.   I’ve always been slightly acrophobic, and it has continued to get worse as I get older. I would cover all of downtown Metropolis in unpleasant bodily fluids if I tried to fly like Superman.  I’ve also never wanted to teleport like Nightcrawler. Dr. McCoy and I share common thoughts on that technology/power. I mean really – can you guarantee that it is ME at the other end of that trip? I don’t believe it. I’ll be the stodgy old lady who refuses to beam to the surface, thank you very much.

As I watched the movie “Limitless” a few nights ago, I came up with my current favorite answer. What I would really love to have is an amazing memory. I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, and I input information like crazy, but my brain is a sieve. I spend entirely too much time re-reading material that I should remember, or looking up information online, or wishing I had remembered to pick up the shirts from the seamstress (crap, I really do need to remember to do that). Yes, I know I have an “information device” in my pocket at all times, but for once I’d like to NOT have to imdb someone who is in the movie I’m watching just to remember who they are. I got “baby brain” with the first pregnancy, and it seems like no one has informed my grey matter that my babies are growing up!

That memory, of course, would need to have an on/off switch. I’ve embarrassed myself on numerous occasions, and I’d rather not have perfect recall of those events. I know plenty of other people will gladly remember them for me. But wouldn’t it be great to clearly remember the first book you really loved, or the way your son looked getting on the bus for the first time, or – heck – even whether or not you already own that book before you impulse buy it at the book store for the third time?

How about you, if you could pick one super power, what would it be?