Day 26 - Lower Your Expectations aka Quick, but not too fast

Lower Your Expectations 

aka Quick, but not too fast 

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Not to brag, but I’ve always been a little bit above average in most of my classes. I mean the classes like Math or English or History. I’m not some genius or anything. I couldn’t dissect an animal or mix chemicals properly, but I could read a book and remember the important parts. I’m not performing brain surgery or anything.

What does that translate to in life? Well, let’s just say I know how to max out my 401k and Roth IRA and have enough left over to buy that new Honda Civic. That’s a joke, it’s a lease. And I still max out credit cards. But you know, priorities. You pick your battles.

Speaking of picking your battles, I took years of Krav Maga and other various self-defense classes. Classes might be a bit strong of a term. I watched a lot of YouTube videos. I tried to learn to use a knife and I’m pretty sure I could break free if someone zip tied my wrists and then left me along long enough. All of this is to say, I’m no Batman. But I do notices things sometimes and can occasionally put together a clue or two if I’m playing a board game or at an escape room.

I watched a reality show about “real life” superheroes. It was just as underwhelming as you’d imagine. A man with a thick skull who can hammer nails with his head. Contortionists. People who could stand extreme heat or cold or electric shocks. Basically there were a whole lot of interesting acts and routines that would have once upon a time populated road-side attractions and traveling carnivals. But none of these people were going to be world savers who could defeat one of those giant beams of light in the sky that seem to happen in all sorts of movies.

But it’s kind of funny what happens once you start looking at the world in a certain way. You start to notice things. I watched a fire fighter saving people from a burning building. He might have been the fastest man I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if that’s saying much. But it felt like it was something out of the ordinary. I don’t know how many people he saved. I didn’t get to talk to him. I was in the crowd but we were all forced to stay away for our own safety. But I saw him go in and out of the building twice as much as the next fire fighter.

It was a sight to behold. It makes me wonder, if he’s out there, who else is out there? Are there really “real life” superheroes like in the movies and comics? And should someone be actively recruiting them into some sort of squad or team or league? And if I could play some small part, what would that be? I feel like maybe I need to go take another class and get myself back into shape.