What would YOUR super-power be?
Tuesday, Sept. 03, 2002, 1:47 p.m.

"If you could have any super-power in the world, what would it be?"

I glance at Anthony with my eyebrow raised and look back at the road. "What do you mean?" This is one of the odder beginings of a conversation I've ever experienced.

"You know, if you could be a super-hero or a super-villain and could choose any super-power in the world, what would you choose?"

I have to think about this for a bit. It's not something that had ever really crossed my mind. "Ah..." I reply brilliantly. "I dunno." I think some more. "Healing, I guess. Physical, mental, emotional..."

I get a look of disbelief from Anthony. I guess he was expecting something a little more spectacular. "Healing?" he asks, wrinkling his nose. He doesn't say it, but I can hear it. "What kind of super-power is THAT?"

I shrug. "I think it would be something that could do the most good. Better than super-strength to be able to beat up all the bad guys..."

I get a nod of acknowledgement for this. "Well, what would be your super-weakness?"

"You have been playing that Spiderman game WAAAAY too much!"

He denies it. Our conversation of course, has NOTHING to do with the most recent computer game he's been obsessed with. At all. Whatever... "Seriously, though, what would your weakness be?"

I ponder this for another minute or two..."Well, I imagine healing someone would be very tiring. I guess the same thing as my strength...y'know, healing someone would use my energy and I could only heal as long as I had that energy."

He seems satisfied with this.

I ask the obligatory, "What about you?"

"I," he responds proudly, "would control time." (He's obviously thought about this for a while.) "You know, be able to go forward or backward in time, slow it down, speed it up, stop it."

"That's kind of cheating. It seems more like several super-powers all rolled into one."

"No it's not, it's parts of the same thing..."

I shrug. "Ok, and what would you do with your control of time?"

"Ah...well..." Equally obviously, he hasn't really considered this very much.

"Would you go back and stop the Holocaust?"

"Yes!" he exclaims.

"Very likely causing yourself to no longer exist in the process."

"What?" he looks terribly confused.

"Didn't you say your grandparents left the area because of all the horrible things going on in Europe and that they met over here in America?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what would have made them leave if there was no Holocaust, if Hitler had died before he ever started the whole shebang?"

"Oh..." He looks rather downcast. "I guess I'd have to go around getting my grandparents together, and maybe even my parents. Who knows?"

"Sounds like a tricky business, meddling in the past. How do you know what kind of impact it would have?"

"Yeah, but I'd still go back and stop 9/11."

While I can't help but agree with him, I have to argue as the devil's advocate. "Well, there are a lot of good things that happened out of that, horrible as it was. I mean, look at the resurgence of patriotism throughout the country, and the focus on God, and the spirit of helping your neighbor. What else would have shaken up our nation so much?"

He looks at me in disbelief, even knowing that I'm arguing only to argue. "I'd make sure everyone knew about the plot beforehand, then we'd still have all the good things without having to have the death."

We let it drop. It's too touchy a subject, this close to the anniversary. "Ok, what's your weakness?"

"I guess along the same lines as yours. I would have to be incredibly careful about going back in time and changing things because I wouldn't really know all of the repercussions."

I nod. Given the arguments I'd just given him, I had to agree that this would probably be the biggest liability.

"Do you think it would it be wrong to use the knowledge from time traveling to get rich?"

I look at him and shake my head. "Depends on what you mean."

"Well, if I use my knowledge to invest in the stock market or something..."

"That's...cheating. You're using your powers for the sole purpose of getting rich!"

"But with the money, I'd--"

"The ends do NOT justify the means," I interrupt.

He starts to protest, telling me all the great things he could do with all the money he could get that way.

"No way. The ends do not justify the means. There's no way you're going to get me to agree with this. If you hurt people in the process of getting something for yourself, it's not right. I'm not saying it wouldn't be tempting, but it's not right."

We bicker good-naturedly about this for a while longer as we head to pick up Matthew.

Later on, when Matthew gets in the car, he gets asked the same question.

"Immortality," is his response.

I can't help it. "Immortality? What kind of super-hero power is THAT? What good could you do with it?"

He shrugs. "Eh," he replies, "probably not a very good one, but it'd be an awful lot of fun." He grins engagingly.

I can't help it. I laugh at him. At least he's honest about it.

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