“With great power comes great responsibility.”
It’s no secret that here at Bloodclot Films, we highly value any reference to the Tobey Maguire era Spider-Man movies. So, when I awoke in a trance from a strange dream this week, I immediately was beckoned back to that fateful scene with Uncle Ben.
A little background: in my dream, I had the amazing ability to fly or levitate, at any speed or height I wished. Pretty boilerplate so far, and not unheard of as far as dreams go.
What surprised me, later on, was how restrained and mindful of my powers I proved to be. For instance, I never once chose to fly at a height higher than 6-8 feet. I was not a vigilante fighting crime at night. No, I was going about my daily routine—walking to work upon exiting Penn Station.
It was the day following a snowy day, and the crosswalks were in regular NYC fashion. The crosswalk of the first intersection I came to may as well have been the Long Island sound—submerged in cold gray slush. Needing to get to work on time and wanting to keep my socks dry, I leaped over the ungodly puddle and up into the air, sailing across 7th Avenue a full 3 feet off the ground at a cruising speed of 6 mph. Only the cars on the road traveled faster than me. I was unstoppable. I hovered halfway down 32nd street between 6th and 7th making amazing time on my commute. Left to right, I dodged between obstructions of all kinds—bike messengers and even the occasional jaywalkers (at that elevation, it’s imperative to keep vigilant, as tempting at it is to close one’s eyes with outstretched arms, exclaiming “Hi-ho, Silver, away!”).
When I finally spied the corner cafe at 6th Avenue, I decided my aerial feats for the day succeeded in maintaining the dryness of my shoes and I quickly alighted at the nearest curb, from whence I commenced my commute and walked the final Avenue and 9 blocks to the office. Needless to say, I reported to my job in a timely fashion, working until noon or so before waking up.
Obviously, at this point, a reader may have a number of questions about the nature of my powers and decision-making in my consequence-free dream-state, so I’ll try to put the most pressing inquiries to rest now.
FAQ
Why did you take the train in at all, considering you could have flown from your house to work directly?
The wind chill. Remember, based on the slushy intersection, it was winter and a frigid day. Flying nearly 30 miles to my office would be the equivalent to being mostly exposed in intense wind, or if you like, riding a motorcycle through a blizzard. It just doesn’t make sense. Imagine the windburn.
Why didn’t you choose to fly above all of the buildings to get to work?
I’ve never seen the tops of the buildings on my walk to work in real life, so I have no way to recreate those images in my mind while sleeping. Secondly, if my powers have faltered, I would have plummeted some hundreds or thousands of feet to my death, as opposed to 3-4 feet. It’s all about calculated risk. If there’s a safe way to do things, why put yourself in harm’s way?
Why not just fly the entire route to work from Penn Station rather than flying solely in designated areas?
Flying everywhere would lead to an unwanted change in my cardiovascular health. Is flying a fun novelty? Yes. Can you overuse and abuse it? Again, yes. Had I continued to use my powers day in and day out to save time on menial tasks like walking to work, my long-term health risks would be innumerable, and my blood pressure would have skyrocketed (I need to hit that 10,000 steps).
Why did you go to work when you could have been flying all day instead?
This is where I recall one of the many life lessons I gleaned from Spider-Man. (Italicize) “With great power comes great responsibility.” Without a job or responsibilities to attend to, what would have been the point flying at all. Where would I need to go? Without a destination in mind to fly to, I’d be a floating freeloader. A soaring sponge. A levitating loser. A gravity-defying derelict. A hovering hobo. As the saying goes:
“Fly by day, you’ll never get pay. Fly by night makes a billfold tight.”
You could have at least taken a personal day to test out your flying abilities.
That’s not a question, but I’ll respond. I am not a lucid dreamer, in that I do not realize I am in a dream during the act of dreaming. Unaware that I would wake, effectively losing my powers, I chose to live responsibly, which extended to how I wielded my flight. Flying was my reality, not a wacky trick I brandished at children’s birthday parties. It was part of who I was. Looking back now at how conservatively I used my flight, one can interpret my mundane airtime as a lack of creativity or initiative on my behalf, criticizing me for not realizing the unlimited scenarios that could have played out in a more enjoyable, adrenaline-fueled way. I’d argue, however, that my boring dream serves as a testament to my willpower. The very fact that I chose to do nothing more than go to work and keep my feet dry proves that, even given immense power, I choose a responsible lifestyle.
Key takeaways:
Cardiovascular health is of the utmost importance.
Our dream behavior reflects our innermost subconscious.
The human psyche is a deep well of curiosity whose nadir we will never know.
The greater the climb, the greater the fall.
The Wright brothers still are under-appreciated.
Dreams represent, not unreality, but the potential for progress.
Bike messengers literally cannot stay in the bike lanes, like ever.
Later,
Stephen G. Erickson, Co-Founder & Part-Time Intern
