Monday, June 02, 2008

My Kryptonite

I have returned to these pages after a long time. It is said that writing is to the soul what flying is to a bird.. No, don’t judge me just yet. I have always found myself in these pages...

The last week I was reading “Unaccustomed Earth” by Jhumpa Lahiri for a book club when an interesting discussion emanated. Are there certain patterns that we crave for in our life? Is it true that our habits rule our world? Are we “accustomed” to certain things to make us feel more alive?

This brought me to an interesting song by a band called 3 Doors Down called “My Kryptonite”. A refresher for those of you are not familiar with this term - Kryptonite is a mineral from the Superman mythos, originating in the Superman radio show series.

The material is usually shown as having been created from the remains of Superman's native planet of Krypton, and generally has detrimental effects on Superman and other Kryptonians.

The word Kryptonite is also used in speech as a synonym for Achilles' heel, the one weakness of an otherwise invulnerable hero.

So here’s my question- do we all have our own kryptonite- the one weakness that we can never overcome or the one weakness which will always leave us aching, vulnerable.

I find that in life we can always govern our choices. We can choose.. no matter what on the way we approach situations, complexities. It could range from choosing not to honk your horn at the slow moving car in front of you to choosing to act in a particular fashion when it all seems too hard. While I know of my own “Kryptonite”- I believe as humans we are the rare species that are blessed by the oh-so-powerful word – “Choice”.

Integrity at the moment of choice.. Isn’t that what makes us who we truly are?