Reflection 9

Nicholas Dadds

Reflection #9

April 3, 2013

After watching the Superheroes documentary and thinking about what I would practically wear if I was placed into that situation, I sided with full body armor, preferably bullet proof, painted black, with a mask. I live in Peoria, and there are several military surplus stores in the area that sell body armor that I could easily pick up. I choose to wear a mask simply because there are areas of Peoria that aren’t safe at all. There is a hill right off of Bradley University’s campus that you should avoid going down at all costs, especially when it gets dark out. That area has one of the highest murder rates per capita in the united states, on January of 2011 alone there were over 10 murders, all gun related. With that being said, protecting myself and my identity would be key, and that is why I would choose to wear a mask. As I mentioned before, crime is a real problem is specific parts of Peoria. If I was to wear a superhero costume and go around helping people, that would be my main goal, to deter crime, not necessarily stop it. My main objectives when dealing with criminals would be to scout and call the police. If necessary, I do have several years experience with various different hand-to-hand combat techniques, so defending myself wouldn’t be a problem, but my goal would be to observe and report and avoid any physical contact if possible.

The hero that I identified most with would be Dark Guardian from New York City. The reason that I identify with him more than any of the other heroes, is because his philosophy on crime fighting is what I based mine off of. Even though he is a high level black-belt, he still recognizes that it is dangerous to get involved in scuffles unnecessarily and, rather than solving the problem himself, he observes the situation, and calls the police, letting them handle it. Which I believe to not only be the safest method, but also the most realistic one that we, as non-metahumans can hope to achieve. 

Reflection #8

Nicholas Dadds 

March 25, 2013

Reflection #8

          The one time I had my beliefs challenged severely was the day of my Confirmation into the Catholic Church. Before the rites commenced, the soon to be confirmed students had an opportunity to speak with the bishop of our dioceses, Bishop Daniel Jenkie. I had a burning question to ask him that had been bugging me ever since I began to think about death and the afterlife. When my opportunity came, I asked him, “My little brother is autistic and has no communication skills. Even though he can’t understand what is going on around him, can he still get into heaven? Does God love him?” The bishop paused for a second, looked me dead in the eyes and said, “No.” and then just moved on to the next student. To say that I was in shock and hurt is an understatement. Here I was an eighth grade student who had blindly followed the teachings of the Catholic Church for as long as I could remember, and now a leader of the Church, had just told me that the person I care most about in the world, who didn’t choose to be born with a disability, is damned to an eternity of suffering and pain. That thought alone was too much to bear, and since then I have renounced my faith and cut all ties with the Catholic Church. Even if they are right, and my little brother is damned, at least I’ll be right there along with him, burning for all eternity. 

          The main difference between the two, is the hide able powers allow me to continue my normal life as it has gone, but with certain super powered perks, but with the other one, I could only imagine a life of obscurity and isolation, my life would be completely different. Again, with the first group, I could continue my life as normal, keeping the same friends and even possibly being in the same fraternity that I am in now; in the second group, I would probably completely avoid all forms of human contact, remaining in some form of isolation from now until my family needed me. The X-Men tell the outcasts and other people considered deviant and odd by the mainstream members of society, that not only can they fit into the normal society, it won’t be easy, but it is possible to rise above and become idols for the mainstream members of society, to be idolized instead of feared or shunned.

          I feel as though the mutant I identify most with is Rogue. I find myself being able to fit into most social scenarios, until I do something odd and people seem to see past the facade, and realize that there is something off about me, causing me to be either shunned, or brought in to the group more. I wouldn’t go looking for a cure. If I was given a gift, I should use that gift to better mankind, not try to get rid of it like a common ailment. 

Reflection #7

       After completing a few of the exercises outlined by Chopra in the back of his book, I noticed a few changes almost immediately. First of all, I noticed a clarity that I haven’t experienced in a long time, I finally found myself having the ability to step back and take an outside perspective of my issues. I felt relaxed, calm, and collected I found myself feeling far more relaxed and capable of sitting down and working, rather than dreading working and putting off various necessary tasks until the last minute. After my previous experience with these exercises, I will defiantly be doing them on a weekly, if not daily basis. The positive changes I felt after doing these exercises were far greater than I had hoped for and continuing would only help me improv on my life. 

       

       I believe that the majority of my friends fall under the friendship of pleasure category, much like many other people my age. As is the case with most people, I like to be around people who share similar interests as me. I believe there is a possibility for one or more of my current friendships to evolve into a friendship of virtue, however; I don’t think it is possible while still in college, especially at Monmouth College. Specifically because we rely on each other so much on campus because of the small size of departments and student organizations, we all must make friends for utility and pleasure, but there is very little call for friendship of virtue. The people I view as possible being friends of virtue are going to be the ones who stick around after college, those who are still involved in my life years after we leave Monmouth, the kind of people who will eventually be involved in the life of my children, not because we need one another to get through a project, or assistance is needed on a paper, but because we honestly want to help each other out, because we care about one another. That is what I believe a real example of a friendship of virtue. That, in the end, is all I, and I assume most other people, want in a perfect friendship. 

Reflection #6

When I think back to my childhood, one particular memory involving imagination and creativity sticks out among the rest. That memory would be when my grandfather passed away. I was unable to cope with the idea that my grandfather would no longer be around, so I used my imagination to pretend that he was still around, teaching me how to play piano and the cello, how to throw a knuckleball and how to knock the wind out of another person without doing permanent damage. Although I was painfully aware of the fact that he wasn’t there to teach me more, I was able to replay everything that he did teach me over and over until I was finally old enough to accept the fact that hanging on to him that strongly wasn’t health. I needed to move on.

In more recent times, imagination and creativity has been exceedingly helpful in order to fix problems. For example, over the summer I had the opportunity to be the set manager for a 114 person cast of Hairspray. During the run of the show, my job was to make sure everything technical ran smoothly, including set changes, costume changes, actors being in place, etc. and to fix anything that broke during the show. On one such night, we had a heavy rainfall during the day before a show, due to that rainfall, our toilet for the jail scene cracked. The crack was small enough that, unless you happened to be looking at the exact place at the perfect angle, it would be missed. Unfortunately, during the first act of the show, the rolling platform it was on was bumped, causing the crack to grow into a full blown split, causing a large chunk of the toilet to fall off and shatter. With little time and even fewer resources, I had to jerry rig a way to cover the gaping hole in the back of the toilet. I found some tin foil and laid it over the hole, then, I use spray paint to blend the tin foil into the rest of the toilet. It didn’t look pretty up close, but from the audience’s perspective, it looked close enough to the real thing to not raise any extra questions.

One superhero in particular who uses his creative abilities often, is Iron Man aka Tony Stark, one time in particular is the Extremis storyline. In this storyline, a super solider gets loose and begins terrorizing the United States, Iron Man is dispatched to fight him, but the super solider quickly gets rid of him due to a lapse between the time commands need in order to transfer from Stark’s brain to his suit. In order to solve this problem, Stark takes the Extremis serum himself and uses it to not only link his brain to all technology, but also repair his heart so he doesn’t require the arch reactor in his chest at all times. 

Reflection #5: Law of Love

          This past weekend I had the privilege of going home and seeing one of my friends from high school who just happened to be home from school at the same time. While driving home, I thought about this assignment and who exactly I was going to talk to, the above mentioned high school friend was the first to come to mind. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had to talk to her. She has been there for me more times than I can count and has helped me through some extremely rough patches in my life, as well as me being there for her. Our high school is the definition of cliquey. If you don’t find a clique to fit into by the second week of school, you’re pretty much an outcast until everybody realizes how stupid cliques are (around finals Junior year). She was is a year younger than I am and neither of us really found a place where we fit in, so naturally we just kind of drifted together and through that, we became close friends. 

          When we finally ended up figuring out the logistics of our reunion, I sat her down and told her how grateful I am that she was there for me in the past and still in my life to this day, I told her just how much she helped me throughout the years and how much I value our friendship. Before I go on, I would like to state that this girl is possibly one of the strongest individuals I have ever met, with that being said, after I told her that, she bawled like a baby. To say that I was taken by surprise is an understatement. She then told me that she felt the same way and that without me, she probably wouldn’t have found her calling in life (whatever that means) and dropped out of school. 

          After we had our reunion and she beat the crap out of me after telling her I had to write a blog entry about this (thus the lack of direct information...she’s watching), we said our goodbyes and parted ways for the time being. I found myself feeling elated, not only because I could be sure that she knows how much I appreciate her, but also because I know just how much she appreciates me. In the future, I probably shouldn’t wait as long as I did to do something like that. The sooner is always better.

Reflection #4: Cameos and Nostalgia

In my first reflection, I wrote about my favorite superhero, The Incredible Hulk. I would love to have a fiction suit in one of the Hulk’s comics, not when Bruce Banner and the Hulk are separate entities, but later on when they become one, known as the Professor. In later comics, Bruce Banner and the Hulk settled their differences and merged forming a being with the intelligence and rationing skills of Dr. Bruce Banner, but the body of the Hulk, a truly fierce and deadly enemy, not as strong as the Hulk but having the ability to think strategically rather than just smash everything. After this transformation occurs, the Professor begins to work as both a scientist and as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as teaching at his former university. I would create a fiction suit where I am one of the Professor’s students, if not only for the reason of picking his brains and finding out the difference between the many different entities that seem to fight inside of Banner (Hulk, Mr. Grey, Savage Hulk, etc.), as well as having the opportunity of being taught by one of the Marvel comics greatest minds.

In recent years, computer graphics technology has advanced far enough that many superhero movies have been either remade, or made for the first time. It is through movies such as, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and many others that brought me a great sense of nostalgia from watching TV series and movies while growing up as a kid, especially when talking about the transition from animated TV series to live action films. The thing I really believe I was longing for from my past was the simplicity of life. Where everything was black and white, there were good guys, and bad guys, there was no blurred line, no grey area, everything was simple and easily defined. As compared to life as an adult, where there seems to be no black and no white, somewhere in life a complete phase shift seemed to have occurred and now nothing is black and nothing is white, everything is grey and complicated. My past may inform my future, like with many superheroes, we cannot be bogged down by our past mistakes. We have to accept the fact that we made them, learn from them and the move on. Living in the past is only going to destroy any chance of having a future for yourself. 

Reflection #3

          In an attempt to explain my recent posts on my blog, I am going to expand on our first reflection. As I stated in our first reflection assignment, my favorite superhero is The Incredible Hulk, but, like most American males who grew up around the same time I did, I have more than one. Another one of my favorite superheroes growing up was, the Sorcerer Supreme: Dr. Stephen Strange. The contrast between those two heroes is vast and quite obvious and yet the two are very similar. Where the Hulk is savage, Dr. Strange is cunning; where the Hulk is brutal, Dr. Strange is calculated. The similarities between the two are also quite astounding. Both superheroes where at one time doctors at the top of their respective fields (Bruce Banner was the top gamma researcher while Dr. Strange was a neurosurgeon), both where born of freak accidents (Bruce Banner was caught in a gamma bomb after saving the life of a young boy who had come riding in on a motorcycle and Dr. Strange’s hands where crushed beyond repair after a freak car accident). Both superheroes had tragic backstories (Bruce Banner was beaten by his father until one day he snapped and killed him and Stephen Strange was the lead surgeon in a desperate attempt to save his sister’s life, who ended up dying on his table) and finally and arguably most importantly, both heroes draw their power from raw emotion, the angrier they get the stronger they become, although in different ways, the Hulk becoming physically stronger and Dr. Strange’s ability to call up more magic force is greatly increased. While both heroes tend to pull from their emotions to strengthen their abilities, one has to wonder why Dr. Strange isn’t consumed by the entirety of the cosmos pouring into him when ever he taps into it, but the Hulk can go berserk if he gets stuck in traffic. Whenever I find myself feeling that rising heat of anger flowing from whatever dark recesses of my mind in come from, I like to think about that very difference and I often realize that most of the time, allowing anger to overcome you isn’t a good thing; it often does more harm than good, but; if you take that anger/energy and use it toward something much more productive, such as homework, the results can be astounding. It was then that I discovered the answer; Dr. Strange has the capacity to turn his anger and direct it in a positive manner, while the Hulk is like an oversized toddler, the only way he knows how to cope with his anger is by...well, SMASH! By using this in my life, I discovered the means to not only controlling my anger, but using it in a productive manner. 

On the topic of secret identities

Hulk vs Dr. Strange: Battle of Will and Emotions

Reflection #2: Who is the person behind the mask?

        One thing I took away from this lesson, is that mortal men sometimes have to commit the ultimate atrocity; taking away another human being’s life. When humanity begins to show and our heroes begin to age, or go to war, sometimes they have to make the necessary actions to keep themselves and the ones they love safe, the exception being Superman, who, in his almost god-like form, is incapable of drawing closer to the human complex he never had. Even the caped crusader, Batman, eventually fails to uphold his highest and most important rule, falling into the depths that is his own humanity. In the Dark Knight Returns series, an elderly Batman returns to defend the citizens of Gotham, only to come face-to-face with a much younger and physically superior specimen, who bests Batman, forcing the Dark Knight to kill several criminals. Many people argue that Batman made the transition from Crime Fighter to War Fighter, making the need for killing necessary, but I say the fact of the matter is that he slipped, making Batman more real and human than ever before. In terms of my own life, this revaluation tells me that, sometimes, even our greatest and most important rules must sometimes be broken in order to save the things we love.

       In terms of the iconic superhero, “dual-identity” I believe that the secret identity is a necessary, if not possibly psychologically damaging risk that most superheroes have to use in order to save the ones the care about from being targeted by the very people they battle on a daily basis. Even though many people don’t have super villain archenemies constantly trying to kill us, we still have a tendency to put on faces or masks for people in our lives. For example, I have at least two totally distinctive faces, one while I’m at school and one while I’m at home. While I’m at school, I live in the fraternity complex with a group of young men you share similar ideals and opinions with me, as well as us being all around the same age group; meaning I don’t have to watch my language, I don’t have a curfew and I get to make my own schedule. While I’m at home, I have to watch my language around my siblings, as well as work my schedule around five other people. Although the transition isn’t very difficult from one location to another, I do sometimes find myself slipping when I first get home from school, allowing some vulgarities to slip out when around my younger siblings. Generally, the transition takes a night or two, but the masks eventually switch without any problems. 

Reflection #1: My Favorite Superhero

Nicholas Dadds

January 19, 2012

Reflections

Reflection #1

Over the course of the past 20 years of my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a rich exposure to comic books. One of the questions I am often asked is, “Which superhero is your favorite?” My immediate response is, “The Incredible Hulk”, the reasoning behind my decision is based on my love of the Hulk comics growing up and the television series with Lou Ferrigno as The Incredible Hulk. The reason that he intrigues me so much is the correlation between the Hulks anger problem and my own struggles with internalizing my own anger. When growing up, I sought refuge in the fact that I wasn’t the only person who felt isolated and persecuted by everyone, resulting in a strong dislike for the majority of humanity, much like what the Hulk felt during his weekly escapades on screen and when ever I could get my hands on a comic book. Like the Hulk, with the assistance of my friends I found a way to quell the seemingly overwhelming rage that constantly burned inside of me. I also found myself drawn to protect those smaller and weaker than myself, and like the Hulk with Rick Jones, I also had a specific person I always protected, my little brother Patrick. One particular instance is when I was playing schoolyard football with some of the other children in my neighborhood. I ended up tackling one of the other players, which caused him to go into a seemingly unending stream of slurs and other vulgarities, including calling my little brother a derogatory term for people with mental disabilities. Needless to say, I lost my cool and ended up attacking the other boy. Like the Hulk, I seemingly gained a massive amount of strength and power, causing me not only to “win” the fight but cause extreme discomfort to the other six boys who attempted to pull me off of the other boy. After that incident, the majority of the people in my class knew that making any negative comment about my little brother would only be met with aggression and pain. In terms of “What Would the Hulk Do?” and how it would help in my adult life, I can’t exactly go around destroying buildings and attacking the US Army, that sort of behavior is usually frowned upon on in today’s society. However, the use of the Hulk, is great for intimidation purposes. For example, being at a party and having one of my friends ask me to scare away a “creeper”. The Hulk would step up, get into their face and scare them into submission.