When I was a kid I used to fantasize about the possibility of being a superhero and if so, which one would I want to be? Which superpower was the coolest to have?
There were the normal adolescent temptations – x-ray vision like Superman so you could see into the girl’s locker room, the ability to disrupt the forces of nature like Storm (of X-MEN fame) so you could cause endless snow days and skip school, or the ability to create fire Prometheus style like Torch (another X-Men dude) because, well, that’s just cool.
These days the likes of Batman and Iron Man are cool because all they are are really normal dudes with a lot of money, really cool cars, and lots of hot women lurking around – what’s not to love?
But then the other day, I was sort of creating my own superpower and I came up with the idea of “pressing the reset button.” It’s cerebral I know and doesn’t quite yet have the mass market appeal of a Superman or Hulk or whatever, and it may truly be a function of middle aged monotony and existentialism, but check it out:
Every once in a while one is faced with either professional or personal situations in which, upon deeper evaluation, you determine you are just plain f’cked. It’s just like a labyrinth of sucky options. Sure, there’s the old “Deepak Chopra creative solution” approach or there’s the more cynical “damn, this sucks” evaluation in which case having the “press the reset button” super power would be wicked helpful. Here’s how it would work. When face with one of the aforementioned shitty situations, you could just hit said metaphorical button, go back to a seminal moment in which you made a critical choice which may have been the first step on a path that led to where you currently are, and you could just, you’know, make a different choice.
Of course, this all raises some rather existential quandaries: is the present moment really reliant on one choice? Is it an amalgamation of every prior moment, every prior choice between this one? Say for example, that one time when I was 8 years old and I consciously made the choice to pee in my pants at night rather than get up at night and go use the bathroom, had I made the extra effort, would I be a different man today?
Too far afield to wonder quite honestly, perhaps another blog for another day. Back to being “Resetman” – that’s kind of cool actually. It really is a more cerebral version of Superman’s ability to spin the Earth backwards on its own access, which truthfully is more of a “rewind” power than a “reset’ one. Alas….
Here’s a better example. When I was in college and I was wooing my current wife (as if I had one before her, huh?), I momentarily became obsessed with a Celine Dion song called THE POWER OF LOVE. Inexplicably, I would blast it from my college dorm room. I like to think I never really sang along to it, but who the hell knows, I may have just conveniently blacked that out in which case, thank you subconscious.
Anyway – I’d really like to “reset” that moment. I’m just kind of ashamed of that time of my life and I feel like I could be a better person, husband, and father if I just never did that. It would be really cool if I could just reset that first time I hit play on my DVD player or switch out to a Tupac album or something.
There are other moments I’d take a crack at but I won’t list them. And of course, there is a current scenario which I can’t really describe in which I fantasize about going back and hitting reset with the suspicion that doing so would mean that I would not be in the situation I find myself in now.
A disclaimer of sorts: my marriage is not in trouble nor does this involve any illicit indiscretions. Okay, I better stop, lest this blog itself become a moment that requires resetting.
Beliefnet
Advertisement
posted July 11, 2008 at 1:05 am
We can all relate to this in one way or another, I am certain.
Choice has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.
Dr. Who [not exactly "resetman", but never the less] travels in a “dimensionally transcendental time machine (i.e. bigger on the inside than on the outside), the camouflage system of which became stuck in the shape of a London police public call box.” The time machine is also called TARDIS, an acronym for “Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.”
In 2007, Caitlin Moran, television reviewer for The Times, wrote that Doctor Who is “quintessential to being British”.
I love the Brits, their imagination and creativity is crisp and quite refreshing.
Thanks Gotham.
posted July 11, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Reminds me of the movie, “The Butterfly Effect” where the main character keeps changing the past, yet screws each situation up in other unforseen ways. Since we are not omniscient, I guess, we never know how are decisions affect us. Maybe had you applied yourself more and gotten into a better college, you’d have ended up with a nagging wife and severely handicapped child. Perhaps that’s a strange way of looking at it, but what the hey?
On a strange (and embarrasing) note, I did that urination in the pants on purpose thing when I was roughly the same age and I do seem to have a long history of not applying myself. Don’t know that it was a make or break moment for the future or just one in a long string of events involving laziness and delinquency.
posted July 15, 2008 at 11:37 am
Tom is so right. In my 30′s I spent alot of time thinking about how I would change my life if I could go back and know what I know now.Not long after this started I met a new co-worker who seemed to be doing all the things the way I wish I would have done them. (I believe the Divine brought her into my life as a great life lesson) I had kids young, she waited until she was older, ect. 10 years later the shoe was on the other foot and I was SO glad I had my life. She also confided in me one time that she thought I was so lucky to be where I was and she wished she was.
posted July 17, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I have been blessed to have spent the last year organizing 13 years of writing and piloting the creation of an entirely new comic universe so let’s just say superpowers are on my mind. “Resetman”? I like it We’ve got one called “Mulligan” and you’re right it’s amazing what we could do with a do-over or two. Then again, after 38 years of traipsing this Earthschool, I kinda like who I am. I am the culmination of my life’s experiences and how I have reacted to and learned from this drama/Maya. Of course if someone offered my the chance to go back in time and gain super powers, I’d probably press the button faster than they could finish the pitch. I know this about myself because I used to run through open fields during thunderstorms with a stick over my head in the lightening strike capital of the world. And if you have to ask yourself why, you obviously never read The Flash.
Peace
posted July 26, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Hello
“Resetman” meant something in the past, but today it doesn´t carry any meaning at all, of course there were times I would have wished for it, simply reset the situation, but today, looking back to the past, and experiencing the present. I honestly feel that, the streem of life, as its ways of doing things. Yes probably I took life to seriously, so I wished for a Resetman. Today living the streem with bumps or no bumps, is OK. Lets just say it is part of Life.
For me, important is to be aware of all this, not to carry regrets, of anykind. But to carry on, with my awareness of all this, so I can live life in fulness. The Past no longer comes back, so why even bother.
Left, right, up or down, they are all descisions, once taken, they belong to the past.
…”Every once in a while one is faced with either professional or personal situations in which, upon deeper evaluation, you determine you are just plain f’cked. It’s just like a labyrinth of sucky options. Sure, there’s the old “Deepak Chopra creative solution” approach or there’s the more cynical “damn, this sucks” evaluation in which case having the “press the reset button” super power would be wicked helpful”…
Anyway the situation exists on our path with a menning, being aware of the possibilities of the moment, gives me, a chance to find the meanning, and even if I do not see the meaning, does not mean I have to stick to it till today.
Oh! and regarding your situation right now, it seems that although, any bother you might have now, you are aware of it, that makes you separated from it.
How lucky you are, many stick to it all they lives.
Peace
From Portugal