Okay, I presume you don’t have x-ray vision and you can’t deflect machine-gun rounds with your cool and stylish bracelets. If you turn into a giant green thug when something triggers you, I don’t want to know.<\/p>\n
But what trait do you have that you secretly think sets you above your peers? Leaving aside highly developed skills or book-learned knowledge for the moment, is there something about your character, behavior, or innate talents that you’re very proud of or that might cause others to turn to you, confident that you can handle yourself?<\/p>\n
For instance, you might be an exceptional problem solver. Or the person who’s always calm when others are losing their heads. The guy who can work 18 hours without flagging or the woman who can almost miraculously calm fussy children. Were you born with some innate understanding of machinery? Or of human emotions? Do you have heightened ability to bear heat or cold? Can you hear things others can’t? Can you put your hand on a piece of wood or marble and “see” the figure that might emerge from it, as Michelangelo reportedly could? Are you psychic? Or unusually adept at recognizing patterns? Were you born with perfect pitch? Can you discern very large prime numbers in your head or effortlessly memorize the history of British royalty?<\/p>\n
Your superpower might be something useful every day, useful only in a pinch, or completely useless to anybody but you. But it’s something you know you can do outstandingly well. <\/p>\n
It may be something that anyone could see fits with your persona, or something nobody would expect. I recall one teenage boy, for instance, who was as unprepossessing and unpromising as teen boys tend to be. He lived for video games, lurched from one stupid move to another, and did everything he could to avoid work. But present this kid with an emergency — any emergency from somebody going into insulin shock to an accident on the freeway with multiple victims and detached limbs — and you’d think he was a medical pro. Unflappable, capable, prepared, quick to act, comforting, and utterly unlike his everyday self. The transformation was astonishing. (Naturally, he went into EMT training; smart boy.)<\/p>\n
My own superpowers, on the other hand, are fairly useless, mostly involving aesthetics. I had a severely autistic relative who could barely communicate, but who could tell you what she ate, wore, and did on any given date in her past. Useless. But impressive.<\/p>\n
So it could be nearly anything. But I’m asking: what’s your superpower?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Bonus question (should you care to reveal it, which I expect many of you won’t): What’s your Kryptonite?<\/strong><\/strong> What one thing is likely to reduce you to paralysis or blubbering ineffectiveness?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Okay, I presume you don’t have x-ray vision and you can’t deflect machine-gun rounds with your cool and stylish bracelets. If you turn into a giant green thug when something triggers you, I don’t want to know. But what trait do you have that you secretly think sets you above your peers? Leaving aside highly developed skills or book-learned knowledge for the moment, is there something about your character, behavior, or innate talents that you’re very proud of or that might cause others to turn to you, confident that you can handle yourself? For instance, you might be an exceptional…<\/p>\n