So as many of you know, there is a group of us that are looking at doing the Run for your Lives 5k (http://runforyourlives.com/), which is an obstacle course seeded with fast and slow zombies. The fact that a lot of us are geeks has something to do with this, but we are also a group of people who want to be in better shape and needed something more inspiring than a finish line.
The problem is, geeks get a lot of press for being really out of shape people. Man or woman, you are either the lard-ass or the 90 pound weakling. You've all seen the pictures of the Batman whose utility belt could double as Andre the Giant's repelling harness or the Wonderwoman with the double-decker muffin top. But most of us who have actually seen these people at Comic-con understand they are just having the same type of fun dressing up as their more svelte counterparts, so we have compassion for them. We know they are our brothers and sisters (or they are us, in some cases).
We know the stereotypical geeks that don't shower or exercise, spend all their time in their mother's basement "downloading pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar," and never communicate with real people unless it's their friends on WoW. But there are many more of us who are leading mostly normal lives as adults who manage to have social lives and bathe regularly.
However, for a number of reasons, the stereotype about the physical fitness levels of geeks may not be as overblown as the other characterizations of geekdom. This may be because we are extra cerebral and not as focused on the physical. It may be because our hobbies are not generally focused on sports or feats of physical prowess. But we have plenty of "role models" in the form of television, movie, and comic book heroes. Almost all of these people are powerful and in-shape individuals. So why is it that we don't adopt the idea that we could physically be like them?
While I was at Comic-con this year, I saw a panel by Grant Morrison and Deepak Chopra called "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Super-heroes" (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6165305576181681554). During this panel, Deepak took us (a room of probably over 500 people) through a guided meditation where we were to access our own core where our superhero self existed. It was a great panel and a very powerful meditation.
Now ask me what my superhero was like? Know what? I don't remember. I was there, I willingly and actively participated in the meditation. I remember I had a superhero... so why can't I remember what that self was now?
I wracked my brain trying to figure out if I was just getting senile or what. Then it hit me. Inside my brain I also have an Arch-villain. And it is that villain who obscures my hero inside. My hero is there, she just can't be seen because of the veils put in place over my inner eye. And the villain is sly. She often doesn't even need to come out in direct opposition to my hero self. All she has to do is make my conscious mind forget that she has that hero inside. It's like a spell or hypnosis.
To keep up the comic analogy, we are living our lives in our "secret identity" and we have been tricked into thinking that is all there is to us. We are ever the Clark Kent without the recollection that we are Superman underneath. We therefore don't think about all of the people who need saving and good deeds that will be left undone if we are never to access our superhero selves. We are smaller. We become one of the powerless.
I will hazard a guess that many of the overweight geeks like me feel their hero self inside them, struggling to get out. I often feel a surge of the awesome power I have at my disposal if I would just come out and claim it. In my mind and meditations, my selves are not fat. They are almost all at a healthy weight and are strong.
I think that many of us are being called to access more of our hero self in the coming year. It's like there is a universal signal pinging out to all of us that works like the Bat signal. Our best selves are needed, not just to rescue our daytime identities, but to help in much more pressing matters. There are others that need to be rescued. Whatever our superpowers, they are ours uniquely, and the Justice League (or X-men, or wherever your team comic aspirations lie) needs us.
And the first step is to realize that we need to be giving ourselves our best. We need healthy minds and bodies and a spirit of service for mankind. We cannot rescue the world if we cannot rescue ourselves first.
We just need to remember that the villain in our head is real and is trying to keep us from being powerful and great. It will even whisper to us that our talents are insignificant or that it is hubris to believe in our perfection. But that is a lie, meant solely to keep us from our birthright.
It's hard. I am not necessarily looking forward to the pain that training for the Zombie 5k will bring. This is the point in movies that they generally blaze over with a montage. But we can't skip it. Our training is a prerequisite for us to be able to win the day. If I showed up for a regular 5k right now I could walk it, sure. I wouldn't be able to run it. And I most certainly wouldn't be able to evade the Zombie Horde at this point.
But I aspire to that. I will find a way with my friends to be braver than I am by myself. And together, we will start the painful process of becoming our powerful, superhero selves.
Everyone out there may not be wanting to get buff and be one of the women who run with zombies. But I would hope you can all do something to care for yourself and to encourage your superhero to start emerging. That is all. The Bat signal has been lit... will you be answering?
I hope that we all will be... I think I have an outfit...
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