Is the balance of your life caught in a web?
My kids love to watch superheroes on TV and in the movies. Well, actually me too. I recently took my son and daughter to see Spider-Man 3. What amazes me about superheroes is their passion.
What I want to know is when Peter Parker sleeps. Yeah, I know his DNA has been tuned so there are no gaps and he has all these super strengths, but does he ever sleep? He goes out dancing all night, webs delinquents and goes to school during the day. In this episode, even when you think he’s going to get some sleep, he lies down on his bed only to be sucked into some sort of mood-altering space black goop. In the first installment, when he first became Spider-Man, after being bitten by his DNA-altering spider, it was the last time we see Peter doze off.
Instead of an alarm clock, he has a scanner at his bedside that goes off constantly. What I also want to know is how he will manage when he and Mary Jane finally have children. He will have a wife, kids, the Superhero concert, bills to pay, a house somewhere, chores, and a job. If he thinks he doesn’t have downtime now, he’s in for a rude awakening. Deadline pressures, endless criminal activities, and kids like him who never sleep are sure to kill Mary Jane. After all, she’s just a normal girl from Queens.
You know, being a superhero might not be such a good idea after all. I mean, can a superhero outsource? The superhero thing doesn’t even provide income, just ethical and moral dilemmas that have to be resolved every night. His super speed can help him and Mary Jane clean a house in record time or his spider-senses can help him notice subtle nuances that can help him find the ultimate cure for disastrous diseases. But he is continually unable to feel what Mary Jane is thinking or feeling. My wife tells me that hardly any man gets it right at that either.
Mary Jane understands her need to be a superhero. But in time, I’m sure she’ll want him to spend more time with her and her children instead of hanging around the big old city night after night. After all, he is very human and after a while he will start to deteriorate. Or does the DNA make him stay that way forever making him immortal? So he’s left to watch Mary Jane grow old while she raises a group of superhero kids who spend eternity defending a just and compassionate society.
Perhaps the lesson is that we all have to find a balance in our lives. Whether we have superpowers or not. Our passion will always pull at our obligations and the people in our lives will question our loyalty to them. But at the end of the day we have to rest a little. It is during the time immediately before that we can remind the people in our lives that we truly love them.
Try to spend at least 10 minutes with each of your children talking and more importantly listening carefully to what happened with their day. Help them feel good about themselves before their sleep. Find something to laugh or laugh about. Find out what bothers them. The life you save may just be theirs.
How about you tell your partner how much you really care about them and find something good that happened for each of you this day before you both close your eyes at night? You’ll find that when the passion for the work you do has the love of those who matter most in your life, you too are a superhero. But unlike a superhero with altered DNA, you need sleep to keep you strong for another day. Another day to be a person of good manners, that by giving your maximum attention to those you love turns you into a superhero. Letting memories of love, laughter, and compassion fill in the missing pieces of your DNA and make you whole before you set out to fight the villains of your day.