The Limitations of Being Human

One day, when Chase was about six years old, he sat at the breakfast table over his cereal looking very sad.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Chase looked up with tears in his big brown eyes. "I'm not ever going to wake up with superpowers, am I?"

The sincerity in his question broke my heart.

I realized this week that I suffer from the same delusion. Sunday afternoon I began feeling terrible. A trip to the doctor and I found out that all of my symptoms were stress related. My doctor looked me in the eyes and said, "This is very normal. You are human." He gave me pills, not to enable me to work harder, but to lower my blood pressure, ease the headaches, and help me rest.

A call to my boss to figure out my work load around my doctor's recommended sick leave elicited the same kind response. "You don't have to be superwoman."

It's great to find out that the people who care about you don't expect you to be more than you actually are. So, while I'm still committed to being remarkable, it has to be within boundaries (apparently) because my DNA hasn't been altered by gamma rays, alien abduction or some sort of random anti-matter encounter.

Still, if a radioactive spider walks by...I'm grabbing it!