A World without a Hero

By midweek, I had read this horoscope upon waking up from an after class nap:

Bizarre dreams might haunt your sleep tonight, dear Cancer, but if you aren't careful, the dreams could disappear as quickly as they appeared. The symbols might be trying to tell you something, so you won't want to forget them. Keep a notebook and pen by your bed, and plant the suggestion in your mind that you'll wake up after you've had an intense dream. Then write the dream down before it vanishes forever.

The cause for my sudden awakening was indeed rather bizarre. Imagine a New York Metropolis with high-rise buildings lining the streets, but instead of pavement, a system of waterways ran along the building sidewalks. I was on a school trip, with friends, on a water cruise throughout the city. A coworker of mine was taking pictures with her digital camera until I had knocked it out of her hand and into the murky water.

In a fit, she made a few of us recover her memory stick and the lot of us disembarked the boat. We had to swim out to find the camera when I wondered off and got lost. As I swam about in the canal, I noticed the road median being split by shelves befitting racks of computer servers, yet they were empty with leftover parts laying about.

In my confusion, I swam on until I reached the Metropolitan Library--a structure reminiscent of Roman antiquity, faced with Ionic columns and grand steps. Over just a short ways was a marble statue, painted in colors of red, blue, and yellow. The monument had erected a crying Lois Lane holding in her arms the lifeless body of Metropolis' Greatest Hero, Superman.

My heart sank to see my hero dead and I awoke from the dream. Whatever it was that the symbolism was trying to tell me has lingered on in my thoughts. Perhaps there's no longer a need for heroes in the world. I don't know....

So tonight, after work, I met up with Steph, Sita, and James at Lucky's Bar for a chance to win airfare to Las Vegas. I had arrived only moments before the drawing but alas, we did not win. The girls standing next to us had won. Oh well.

At the bar, Sita presented me with a gift--a tiny hard cover edition of Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice. I absolutely love it. Then a moment later, I went up to the bar to buy my drink when the lady bartender throws a gift Bacardi t-shirt my way. Lucky me.

Fei-O-Meter
Activity: 3 | Energy: 3 | Friends: 3



But most will remember this sad day as the day the proudest, most noble man they ever knew finally fell. For those who loved him -- one who would call him husband, one who would be his pal, or those who would call him son -- this is the darkest day they could ever imagine. They raised him to be a hero: to know the value of sacrifice, to know the value of life. And for those who served with Superman in the protection of all life comes the shock of a failure: the weight of being too late to help. For a city to live, a man had given his all and more. But it's too late. For this is the day that a Superman died.
-Superman #75, 1992