#CMLITHW

[howtohero]

#241 Appreciating Beauty

Superheroes see a lot of bad stuff during their careers. They see tragedy: the deaths of other superheroes, the deaths of clones who look exactly like them, their own deaths. They see terrible crimes: murders, baby-eating swifties, Rambunctious-Red-Light-Runners. They see horrors: Ooze monsters, tentacle monsters, the Flasher who well, you know. All of these terrible sights could be enough to really bring a person down. How can a person see so much evil, so much sadness, and yet still remain a beacon of light and good for the world? (Before I forget, I should note that when I see baby-eating swifties I am referring, of course, to fans of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” who do not get the subtlety and nuance of the piece. Any other “swifties” out there, do not send me hate mail.) In my conversations with heroes I have found that tends to be a unifying factor amongst those heroes who do not become disheartened or disenchanted with their work after spending years seeing the worst mankind and the universe have to offer: They learn to recognize, and appreciate, beauty.

While it is true that superheroes are often exposed to the very worst aspects of society, they also have an unparalleled opportunity to see the best parts of it as well. Often the adventures of superheroes will take them to parts of the universe that nobody else has ever seen. They can go to the furthest reaches of space, the depths of the oceans, the annals of the psychedelic tundras or digital rainforests. Unfortunately, many superheroes end up losing sight of this beauty, as they only find themselves in these astonishing locales because they are in the midst of fighting a trash monster or questing for a pearl that is said to hold the key to truly understand the lyrics to Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”. The obviousl solution here then, is to take the time to return to these places during calmer times, when the fate of the world is not resting squarely on their shoulders, and they can just sit and marvel at the wonders of the universe. But some things are easier said than done.

Superheroes are not especially known for taking days off (at least, the one’s who actually care about saving the world. Crimes are being committed right this very instant! And what are you doing? Reading a funny blog on the internet. Disgraceful.) as the oft quoted Ultiman saying goes: “Criminals take many days off. But they never coordinate, because they’re bad at scheduling. So you’ll never like get a day where all the criminals are taking off and going to the farmer’s market or something. They seem to go in shifts. So anyway, not to belabor this point or anything, but yeah, there’s always a supervillain or criminal out there is actively committing crimes.” He’s not a very eloquent man, but he makes a sound point. So how are you going to appreciate beauty if you’re in the middle of punching a CMLITHW (a Cantankerous Melonheaded Louisianan Implike Truck Helming Walrus, there was one summer when all anybody was fighting was these guys and it was making superhero newsletters too long so we all agreed to just use this abbreviation) or trying to stop the forces of Atlantis from invading the surface world for the fifth time in one month? One thing you can do is just agree with the person you’re fighting to take a moment and just take in the majesty of your surroundings. This will give you both an opportunity to catch your breath and clear your mind and it might even have the added benefit of causing the bad guy to reconsider their plan to level the entire area in favor of placing a ginormous Easter-Island style statue of their head. (Note: This will only work if the area is prettier than the bad guy’s face which is far from guaranteed.)

Of course, then you run into the issue of letting the bad guy, a known supervillain, a person who woke up one day and said “Hey! You know what might be fun? Invading Finland!” and then they did it and, according to their tell-all memoirs, it was very fun, be treated to seeing beautiful sights. Do they deserve to behold the breath-taking sight of intergalactic western lights? Have they earned the right to gaze upon the Diamond storms of Neptune without being drop-kicked immediately? There’s a fine line between encouraging bad guys to self-care and rewarding bad guys for launching themselves into space so they can’t be arrested for spray painting the word “poop” onto city hall. (Or a different crime, I’m just using an example from the news.) So what we would recommend is the following process:

Suggest to your villain that it would be highly beneficial for both of you to take a break from fighting to take in the beautiful sights around you.

Once they agree, take a seat beside them and watch the glorious quadruple sunset that is only visible from the plains of GlackGlckGlack 13.

Cover their eyes so they miss the whole thing! Ha!

Finish beating them up.

This way you get the quiet moment of reflection and introspection that you need plus you’ve inconvenienced or otherwise harmed a supervillain! That’s all around wins!

There are also plenty of ways to appreciate beauty in your own neighborhood, and without appearing like you’re being derelict in your superheroic duties. You’re a superhero. Every day you put your life on the line to protect those who can’t protect themselves. You save lives every day, heck, maybe you’ve even saved the world a couple of times. That’s pretty great isn’t it? Now, think about all the other heroes you interact with on a daily basis. Think about all the people they’ve helped, sometimes contrary to what is in their own best interest. Every day you surround yourself with incredible people who do incredible things for the betterment of society. If you take a moment or a couple of moments every day to just appreciate that, you’ll realize that maybe the world isn’t so bleak after all.

Even taking a moment to see all the good that you yourself have done can result in a marked improvement in your outlook on life. Go to towns you’ve saved, speak to people you’ve helped, the smaller the better. It’s easy to forget how much good that you do when you think about it on the scale of the entire world or universe. And it’s easy to become disenchanted when you look at all the evil that’s still in the world. If you ever feel like what you do isn’t worth it, or isn’t valuable, in the face of so much persistent evil, look for individuals. The individuals you’ve helped can show you the effect that you have on regular people around the world. You give them hope, you give them wonder, you give them a shot at life that simply would not be there if evil was allowed to run rampant. If that doesn’t improve your mood I don’t know what will!