Flight or Invisibility?

I think I've always wanted to be a private dectective. And not for the obvious reasons. If I really think about the job, and probably is an incredibly depressing job, but it's not the pulp-fiction glamor of gun fights, car chases, and sultry clients. What really appeals to me is the ability to bear witness, and use your intellect for what's right. I never wanted to be a cop, because you aren't there to uphold "right", you are supposed to enforce the law. I think upholding something as tenuous and personal as "right" is a much trickier, and therefore interesting, job. In reality, you probably end up watching spouses cheat on each other, and people attempt to fraud big companies out of insurance money. But the allure is still there. I guess it goes without saying that one of my childhood (and still current) heros was Sherlock Holmes.

The allure of illicit knowledge is pretty tempting too. I've never wanted to be the front-man. I was never interested in acting, but I wanted to know what went on behind the scenes. I'm still drawn to explore every stage area I can, because I want to know what it *really* looks like. Not to the crowd, but to the people who perform. Being a private eye dovetails neatly into that too. The public lives we lead all so homogenized by social mores, that I imagine there are a lot of interesting things happening under the surface, much like the action that happens 'backstage.'

I think the social expectations are more ridgid in many ways then they have been. Media tell us what they are, and while they may be more diverse now (due to the huge variety of media we can access), this diversity just means that there are more templates to hold to. It seems as if almost every sub-culture has been vetted by some form of TV, radio, blog, etc and these treatments then live on to color those sub-cultures from then on.

How many budding punks got their start watching "Suburbia" or "Sid and Nancy" or some other variation on that theme? But I think the people beneath the image are far more interesting than any amount of social decoration. I always want to know what people's stories are, what they believe, and how they got to be who they are. It usually pretty entertaining. I think being a private eye has some of this to it. You need to figure out people's stories. How they fit into the greater world. I bet it's a terrible job though.

Also, I like being sneaky.

As the title asks: Flight or Invisibility? This was a question I heard on NPR's "This American Life" (a brilliant radio program of stories every Saturday at noon, and 10pm, or www.thislife.org). The full question was: If you could have one super-power, flight or invisibility, which would you choose. The consensus was that if you chose invisiblity you were sneaky, dishonest, a voyeur etc...and if you chose flight you were ...not arrogant, but something along those lines. Anyway, I've toyed with the idea for a long time, and as media has told me, there's always a drawback to getting a wish granted. So I was trying to think of all the little problems with each one. What it comes down to (assuming I can actually solve each nagging problem; such as not having to be naked to be invisible, or not freezing to death if I fly very high etc..) is that I think I'd rather be invisible.

In truth, this kind of suprises me, because I hate to fly in airplanes, well that's overstating it. I dislike it. A lot. But I think flying would create too much attention. I could see where I would choose flying if I really could work out *all* the bugs (like people not being able to see me when I flew etc..) but day to day I think being invisible would be fun. I don't want to steal stuff, or see people have sex or anything (come on seriously, most people look really weird naked). But it would be entertaining to be able to observe people going about their daily life without impacting them. Also I would become a kick-ass private eye.