Regular superhero

Maybe you never know when you're in the presence of a superhero, or super heroic activity. A few days ago, Cleo and I were walking along Charles Street, and she when spotted some small discarded scraps of paper, she stooped to pick them up. It made her sad, she said, to think of the earth being hurt, and so she wanted to make it beautiful again. She then proceeded to pick up a weighty, soggy, and drooping plastic bag that held - well, something. And she looked at me, and said, 'Here, Dad.'

Was that superheroic? Certainly not in the traditional, Marvel-comic mode. There were no miraculous origin stories, and no stunning superpowers; heck, there wasn't even a BLAM!!!, or an archvillain. It occurred to me quite a bit later, though, that Cleo hasn't read any Marvel comics yet. Instead, her idea of a superhero was largely shaped by Milkshake, the children's band whose song 'Superhero' was a favorite of Cleo's when she was 3. That song offers a very different notion of super-heroism:

You think I'm so amazing, it's hard to believe
All my superpowers are in my heart, you see.

But in fact the Milkshake take on superheroism isn't unique. I think, too, of the Foo Fighters' 'My Hero,' with its heartwarming video and its comparable lyrical emphasis on the everyday:

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary

So, then. This week, Cleo and the Redbirds studied superheroes, and one of her teachers brought in an old set of paper dolls depicting relatively conventional roles: fire fighter, for instance, and nurse. The 'birds were then asked to design their own superhero - and Cleo quickly decided to fashion 'a regular girl who picks up trash.'

There goes my hero.
Watch her as she picks up paper.