the process of remembering: a photoblog by andrew huth

“Can We Still Be Superheros?”

I have been feeling nostalgic lately (yeah I know not really a big stretch for me).  While going through some piling paperwork on my desk I ran across the most recent birthday card my uncle Bobby gave me this year that had two pictures of me that he took when I was a kid.  As it is with many American raised children I fell in love with Superman as a child—well I wanted to be many different superheros (my favorite was most likely Spiderman—who incidentally also was a photographer as his alter ego).

I like this picture a great deal, because it reminds me how simple and imaginative children can be.  It reminds me of a time when so many things were new and full of interest and yet somehow not as complex and difficult as things often seem today.  As a child if I saw a stranger in need of help, my first thought was to simply help them.  Now I hesitate and wonder if it is safe to pull over and help a stranger in need.  As a child when I saw someone crying, my first thought was to go and hug them.  Now I wounder if I would be thought as strange.  I so desperately want to believe and know that I still have the spirit and goodness of a child inside of me, but the truth is those days are mostly gone and I can never have them back no matter how nostalgic I get.  All things grow old and change.  It is what makes us both so great and at times also so tragic.

It is this simple fact that makes pictures like this so important to me; when the world gets too heavy and cynicism starts to creep into our lives we need to be reminded that at times we need to channel the inner child within us and choose to love unabashedly.  I think Jesus understood this very well because he said things like, if you see a person who is hungry then go feed them and if you see a person without home or clothing then shelter and clothe them.  More simply put, Jesus often told us to act like children.  I will never be Clark Kent or Superman anymore or have my childhood back (some stuff from my childhood I would never want back), but it doesn’t mean I can’t be a superhero still.

A side note about this picture:  I recall vividly of being crushed when my mother would not let me go to bed with my cape on.  She told me that she didn’t want me to accidentally choke at night.  I was like, but Mom Superman isn’t going to do something as stupid as choke on his own cape!  Good thing my mother knew better than the little man of steel!