"I'm not just another great performer with a
Tape recorder and a way with words
Ain't you heard? I got a greater purpose I was made for
I'm a superhero here to save the Earth!"
--From my song "Superhero"
HERO
a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with
great strength or ability
b : an illustrious warrior
c : a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities
d : one that shows great courage
Okay, folks. Time to do a little time traveling back to Chris's childhood:
So there I was, a three years old, playing in my neighborhood in Concord, CA, where my family had recently moved, and I was thinking about my wonderful Superman book that I had gotten. It was a full color storybook of Superman, and I would pore over it, envisioning the story of Superman in my head, and fantasizing about the superhero story.
At that moment that I remember thinking, "I want to be Superman!" In fact, at some point I had acquired a Superman cape, and I wore it to the preschool I went to. Unfortunately, the preschool teachers were concerned that I was going to jump off a tree and hurt myself (I think I even got up into a tree!), so they took the cape away.
Skip to another, related memory. My other fantasy was to be a Jedi Knight. A spot weld moment in my childhood was when my dad picked me up from pre-school one day and brought me to see "Return of the Jedi." I still vividly remember watching the scene where the Emperor gets thrown into the shaft by Darth Vader. At one point, when I was about seven, I took a Polaroid of myself holding up a flashlight and drew a light saber blade with a green crayon. I also remember at school repeatedly drawing the scene where Lando Calrissian fights his way out of the Sarlacc pit to avoid the fate of being digested for 1000 years.
You might say that it seems kind of silly to talk about these childhood fantasies. After all, I was probably one of millions of kids who did these kinds of things. Besides, what do Superman and Luke Skywalker have to do with who I am today?
The answer (don't laugh): a lot. These characters sparked real desires in me of how I wanted to live. Because, although I may no longer be fantasizing about wielding a lightsaber, I still have aspirations to live a heroic life. And just like many a kid (or adult for that matter), these stories sparked that desire in me. The characters in these movies inspired me too to want a life that is a fun, rewarding, triumphant adventure just like them.
After all, isn't that in a sense what these fantasies represent? Isn't that what makes stories like these cool in the first place? If you ask a kid why they like Superman, the kid won't say "because it's entertaining." He'll tell you it's because he wants to BE SUPERMAN. I didn't just think Star Wars was entertaining, I wanted to BE A JEDI. Literally.
If you think about it, characters like Superman or Luke Skywalker represent ideal ways of being. These characters don't just serve to entertain, they serve to inspire. You may not actually wear a cape and fly, but you can aim to "save the day," so to speak, in whatever you're doing. You can stop by the side of the road and help someone with a flat tire and be their hero.
And although you may not be able to wield a laser beam as a sword and move objects with your thoughts (or maybe you can, for all I know!), you can practice trusting your intuition. You can develop your mind to be a sort of Jedi Wizard in whatever you do. You can literally eliminate the "Dark Side" of negativity from your life by being a positive person who takes responsibility for it.
The point is, the stories that kids are exposed to are powerful. I think people actually are influenced more than they realize by the childhood fantasies they had. They help shape the people we become. Look to your own life and see if any of this is true.
It's certainly true for mine.
--Chris
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