Superpower

Herself is fond of quirky online quizzes.  "Which type of donut are you?" "What's your sixth sense?" "How well do you know the lyrics to I'll Make A Man Out Of You?" (Quite well, thank you.)  Some are meaningful, and others are just plain silly. Sometimes the results are a wee bit accurate, and other times they are just plain ludicrous -- and they are almost always amusing.

The other day, she was taking some (now unmemorable) quiz, and one of the questions gave her pause -- not for the question itself, but for the listed answers from which to choose.

"What superpower would you like?"

Herself expected the usual panoply of responses: incredible strength, the ability to fly, invisibility (her usual choice). One new option was presented, though:  "the power to heal."

Yes. That one.

She would not choose to heal physical illness. Human beings cannot ultimately cure difficulties of a body - it is a machine, fallible, prone to breaking, moving through time in only one direction.  Rather, if she could, she would choose to heal invisible suffering:  Weariness of the soul. Despair. Sorrow. Grief. Loneliness. She would lay a hand upon another individual, and ease the pain. Their memories would remain intact -- for it is our experiences that make us who we are -- yet she would infuse enough consolation to make their difficulties tolerable. That would be a magnificent superpower, indeed.

 Perhaps, if she tries very hard, she can develop this superpower.

Perhaps, she thinks, the art of listening is a first step. If we listen, not only to what is said, but what is not said, carefully and with our full attention, we may be able to hear what is needed. It might be a willingness to shoulder another's burden.  It might be a metaphorical or literal buffer against the grating of the world -- providing the gift of quiet solitude to another.  It might even be just a warm thought sent out into the ether. Each little act might change the Universe, molecule by molecule, to make Things just the tiniest bit Better. We can hope.

It will require a bit more love.  We can do that.

"For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other. 
This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Picture copyright 2014, Mediocria Firma. Used with gratitude.