Ooh, that's a ticklish one for me! You see, I believe I do have a superpower. On the other hand, not everyone agrees with me that I have it, and one of my DSM-IV "marks-of-the-beast" is a tendency to grandiose thinking. So, today I'll share the superpower I believe I do have, a different superpower about which I've been working on in a poem, and an ideal superpower that I wish I might have.
My Superpower--I barely need fuel!
My superpower is that I can survive and thrive on a fraction the amount of food most people need. This has pretty much always been true of me. Last year, as I shared on here, I was on various "eat more" diet kicks in an attempt to boot my thyroid into normal range, and there's one other time in my life I've done something similar. It made me feel icky and put a few extra pounds on me. When my thyroid had to be increased back in November, I said "Hell with that," and went back to eating only what felt necessary. At some point, I totaled up what I was eating, and let's just say it was less than half what's considered normal--and felt like a lot to me. I felt better in my tummy, and started to recognize myself in the mirror again.
Being allergic to lots of things, it's really handy not to need to eat much--it means that if a tired lettuce salad is really all that's available when I'm eating out, I'm fine with it, and if I go to someone's home and they're not able to provide something I can eat, it's no big deal, and I don't feel like I have to inconvenience them.
As a plant-based eater and former locavore, I often worry about food supply and abundance, in fellowship with the kneeling moose, my fellow herbivores, who've had such a hard winter here. I'm so grateful that we're able to import food up here, but I have fear about supplies running out. If I need only a minimum, then if it came down to only wild forage being available, I'd be ok!
Superpower fueled by superfoods--there's not a whole lot of calories in a spirulina-snow smoothie, even with an apple on the side. Keeps me going all afternoon, spirulina is awesome!
Superpower in a Poem
I've been working fairly intensively lately on a poem I had been slowly working on for months--a big poem, a sonnet crown. It's about being a chef who has the ability to discern exactly what every diner loves to eat, and to make it for them, and who can also make "a dish dissolving difference"--accommodate many differing palates around a single table. People from my last year's RWW residency workshop will recognize the germ of that.
If I Could Choose a Superpower--Words and Herbs
The chef poem is somewhat metaphorical, of course, and it points at a superpower that I would love to have. I would love to be able to produce the right poem, the right words, for every person, every occasion, every group of people--to have the discernment and "in the moment-ness" to know exactly what every situation and person needs in terms of word-nourishment. I'd also love to have the same intuition around herbs and which one is apt for whom. I feel lucky with my cicada-esque appetite and small needs--that's a superpower gift. But this superpower, of knowing how to heal the world with poetry, is one I aspire to, and will do everything I can to work toward.
