monsters and heroes

The other night at dinner Sam asked the boys what super powers they would have. We had just watched The Incredibles and they’ve added superheroes to their list of talking points. Jem said that he wanted to be able to run really fast like the one character in the movie.

Tru sat for a moment, thinking, and then held out his hands and said, “I want powerful hands.” I can honestly say that I have never heard of a superhero who had powerful hands as his super power. And I certainly never thought of wanting that power when I was a kid. I always wanted to change into an animal or breathe under water. (As a side note, my kids informed me that turning into an animal was a silly super power.)

But I started thinking about Tru’s desire for strong hands and I’m wondering now how much of it is perspective. He watches his Daddy throw a ball high up into the air using his hands. He knows what it feels like to have his Mommy pick him up with her hands and carry him to the time-out chair. Our hands are the things that can help him with something or frustrate his attempts to disobey. So maybe he sees powerful hands as a way to be in control of stuff. Or maybe he just wants a really weird superpower. He did tell me about a monster horse yesterday that spits apple juice at people so I guess wanting powerful hands isn’t that far off on the weirdness scale.

photo by Quasic  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ripton/3002133030/