Prior to this pregnancy, I would have chosen invisibility as my superpower, had a superpower been offered to me. Now, however, I am rethinking that choice.
See, somehow that specific combination of my I-always-knew-as-a-child-I-was-destined-to-be-a-fairy genetics and my husbands I-wish-I-was-a-vulcan genetics has produced a baby with the apparent ability to turn himself invisible. What’s more, his ability is so strong, that he can actually turn ME invisible while he is currently encased in my sore, loving womb.
This has been an incredible and eye-opening experience.
More specifically, I have learned that being invisible sucks.
People run into you all the time. Sometimes with heavy objects, like shopping carts or themselves. I have nearly been hit by a car more times in the past 7 months than the first 21 years of my life. What’s more, I’m actually more careful now- especially around motor vehicles- than I have ever been. While I once ran across six lanes of traffic hoping I was faster than the oncoming cars, I now wait tirelessly for walk signs at crosswalks.
As my child grows, so do his powers. I think the invisibility is strongest around my stomach, because people don’t even seem to realize it is protruding about a foot in front of me. They elbow it or swing their purse into it with wild abandon. One woman even rested her arm against my stomach while pouring herself a glass of lemonade, as though my stomach were a conveniently located lemonade-pouring armrest.
In case you weren’t sure, it is just really, really weird to be comfortable leaning against a stranger’s stomach.
When things like this happen, I often just stare at the offending party, speechless and incredulous. My stare does not correct them, of course, because they can’t see me staring. Sometimes I am so shocked that I laugh, which I’m sure creeps people out a great deal, seeing as I am invisible and all of the sudden there’s the sound of dumbfounded laughter coming from that bump in the air that they just ran into.
So if I were offered the superpower of my choice, I think I would just ask for the ability to control the superpowers of my children. That way when some new, strange things begins happening during a future pregnancy, I’ll be able to do something about it.
When I was about eleven years old I went to summer camp for the first time. Before my sister and I left, my mother talked to us about something. She explained that we needed to mindful of our behavior at camp, not only because it is important to be kind and respectful, but also because we would be a representation of both our family and Christ to the people around us. That stuck with me. Now, with so many of us daily browsing and posting to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and blogs such as this, our representation is no longer limited to the people we are around in person- it is far-reaching, even global at times. It is certainly a far more widespread representation of yourself to post on the internet than it is to say something in person; on the internet, the dozens or hundreds of people you are connected with may see it. That is an enormous audience. I feel very strongly that we need to be mindful of that audience, of that representation,
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