The card you were not dealt

I am 60 years old and I do not have gray hair. 

Well, that's not 100% true. I have some threads of silver but they are so few and far between that no one can really see them. 

I guess I'm happy about this? It's a genetic thing - my mother went gray very late and my sisters are also not showing their age in the hair department as much as one would assume given their ages, which - well, they are older than me but please do not ask me to do math.

I have friends who have been dyeing their hair for years and they may not appreciate my cavalier attitude, but honestly, if I were to pick the genetic anomaly I wanted this would not be top of my list.

Not that I'm not grateful! I mean, I'm pleased. Is that close enough?

I'm pretty sure that if my hair was in fact graying I'd be dyeing it all kinds of lovely colors but this dark brown is STUBBORN. So, while I was platinum for many years it was a job to keep it up and it's a little daunting to hop back in.

But enough about my hair - I already spend way too much time thinking about it and let me not make that worse by getting everyone else involved.

Mainly I mention it because we are all playing the cards we were dealt but it's still kind of fun to think about the ones that are still in the deck.

If I could choose a superpower (that's maybe more of a human power) then today I'd choose to have a terrific singing voice. 

It's an astonishingly poor design choice to give some humans the ability to belt out real music from their own bodies and leave others sounding like ill-treated lemmings. (Looking at you, Bob Dylan.)

Yet another thing to lay at the feet of evolution which is obviously not a sentient power but still has a lot to answer for.

So, I'd love a great set of pipes and also I'd like to be fast. I have children who can win running races and I'm endlessly jealous. I tried swimming and I tried running and I've got decent stamina but I'm just not built for speed.

When it comes to real superpowers of course I'd like to fly; I mean who among us wouldn't? And I say that as someone who has a healthy fear of heights. Though I'm guessing that if I could fly that would be negated because a fear of heights could be more accurately described as a fear of FALLING from heights and if you could fly, then no problem, right?

The other one I really really want and even at times as a child thought I might have is the ability to breathe under water. I was very jealous when Percy Jackson discovered that he could do it.

But alas we are not allowed to choose our own traits and abilities, unless some of the woo woo gurus are correct and we decide who and where to be born while still in the spirit world. I've got some problems with that concept, to be honest, but it's an interesting idea and I wonder what spirit me would select for 3D me.

I've always thought I'd choose to be an animal rather than a human. 

I know there's this idea that humanity is somehow the pinnacle, but I believe we're demonstrating daily that this idea is ludicrous. 

But then I found this fascinating livestream of a watering hole in Namibia. And also one in Sweden showing the annual moose migration. 

It's like The Truman Show, but animals. And you know what? They appear to spend most of their time standing around. So I’m going to say - still seems worth experiencing but maybe not as interesting as I’d once assumed. 

Though that feels unnecessarily judgmental. Maybe oryxes and caribou love their chill lives.

Well, enough of my rambling. Here's an assignment (not that I have the ability to give you homework or even the semblance of a request for such). What power or superpower would you choose if given the opportunity?

Honestly I really want to know and if you are comfortable with announcing it publicly I'll encourage you to post a comment. 

I appreciate your email responses but Ghost is making it hard for me to see them so commenting is currently the best way to communicate with me until I figure out how to unlock the next level or whatever. 🙄

OK, love you, bye!

Julia

Recommendation!

IRL hobbies. I've run across several instances of people talking about this recently, and I'm in full agreement that it's what we need at this particular juncture in western history.

If a lot of your free time, like way too much of mine, is spent in thrall to other people doing stuff, then we're all missing out. We're in danger of becoming the humans in WALL-E, rolling around the spaceship in their souped-up Rascals, eyes glued to screens.

Once up on a time we used to build things and track things and climb things and grow things and we called it 'living our lives'. Now we do those things for fun!

And they are fun!

If you haven't engaged in your favorite hobby recently I encourage you do do it. Fortunately one of mine is called 'puttering around in the garden' and requires little equipment and even less acumen. But it's fun! And it does not require a charger of any kind.

Beyoncé knows that superpowers are born of connection, not conception, and so does this email. Forward it to someone who wants more more more.