Good Guys and Bad Guys

The Boston marathon bombings and the ricin mailings occurred within days of each other. A few days after the events, we heard an update on the news about the attempted ricin attacks. These events profoundly disturbed Eli. We listened to the radio and he asked questions.

“Did they catch that bad guy, mom?”

“Not yet, Eli. But they’re trying to.”

“Well, where is he?”

“I don’t know Eli. They’re looking for him… I mean, them… It’s not just one guy. It’s different people.”

“Oh, Mom.” He responded immediately, incredulously, almost condescendingly, as if he felt sorry for my naivety. He raised his eyebrows at me, and was sarcastic:

“Mom, come on. Like there’s TWO crazy people out there? Both really bad guys. Blowing up runners at a race. AND trying to poison Barack Obama. In like the same day? That would be ridiculous.”

I found it very difficult to argue with my boy (even though he didn’t have all the facts straight) who was using the innocent logic of someone who has only just begun to process the violence of the world we live in. It’s one thing to fathom that any one person would plot the murder of innocents, but that someone else could be plotting against our leaders? On the same day? It does seem absurd, doesn’t it?  

“I guess it is possible that it’s the same guy, Eli. But I think it’s different people.”

“Ok, mom. That could be it. But if it’s two guys, they definitely know each other. Definitely. All the bad guys know each other.”

Of course they know each other. They’re villains. They get together and have meetings, don’t they? They plot to take over the world and overthrow one another. I can’t help but really appreciate Eli’s point of view on this. He still has a comic book view in his mind of heroes and villains. I can imagine what happens inside his nine year old imagination when the police find and arrest the evildoers who plague our community.

With deadly accuracy, Sgt. Goodguy takes aim…
Bam! TheBadGuy strikes back.
Kapow! Sgt. Goodguy collapses.
“Must… get… help… Save city…”

But it’s so sad to me at the same time. Eli’s point of view makes sense to me. I would love for it to be as absurd as he believes. It IS absurd and unreasonable and ridiculous that there would be multiple villains plotting against innocent citizens and our nation’s leaders all at the same time, in the same weeks and days. Holy Calamity, Batman! This is just senseless. But I suppose this is the world we live in. This is the reality of our community at large today, hardship that it is.

We live in a shared global universe. We’ve got daredevils, good guys, innocents, unsuspecting bystanders. We’ve got real live villains too. But we also still have little kids running around neighborhoods with white picket fences. Literally. My kids are among them.

I literally sit sometimes on a porch swing watching them run amok and the thought bubble over my head is filled with wonderful things as I watch them. And worry. I acknowledge the responsibility I have to keep them safe. And I fear the lack of power I have sometimes in carrying that through.

It was the narrator of a Spiderman comic, I believe who first said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Spiderman had power first and had to learn responsibility. We’ve got the responsibility and we need more power. I’m not looking for the power to take over the world. Just to keep my babies safe and happy. To keep them free to run the streets in my neighborhood without worrying too much, to let Eli be naïve and incredulous about the news a little bit longer.