Who Was That Masked Man?

A few years ago I had a visitor here at the house.  She had never been here before and she looked around to see where I lived.  Her eyes landed on the bottom of the bookshelf and kind of stayed there.

The whole shelf was lined with hero novels.  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Justice League, etc.  These aren’t graphic novels or comic books, they are actual prose.

Recently when I received my medical records from my years in the hospital, I saw there was a lot of a mention of a hero obsession.  Living in a fantasy world and things like that.  I read through what these doctors wrote about it and I had to laugh because for all of the psychoanalyzing, they never figured it out.  They had theories about it but never truly understood.

I can’t fault them or blame them for it, though, because I did not understand it myself until I answered my visitor’s unspoken question.  She said nothing, but the look in her eyes was obvious: Why is a forty something year old reading this kind of stuff?

Before she could voice the question, I answered it for her:

I can relate to wearing a mask.

I had no idea I had even said it until after it was spoken.  Then it was like an epiphany and a question I’d had for over 30 years was finally answered.  I like the heroes simply because I can relate to wearing a mask.

My father has always enjoyed western movies.  He has wanted me to watch with him sometimes but I never could because I am just not into that kind of thing.  The exception is the Lone Ranger.  I love the Lone Ranger.  I have thousands of the old radio programs in MP3 format.  I have seen the TV show and several of the Lone Ranger cartoons over the years.  Here, in this one man, is everything that is good about humanity.  Even today (or perhaps especially today) in a world of wars and a failing economy and rising prices, he brings hope.  He shows us there is good among the evil.  I find him to be uplifting and inspiring.

I don’t care for westerns at all.  The only reason I ever starting watching the Lone Ranger was because of the mask.  (The mask itself is a great story, made from the vest of his dead brother.)

Batman is also interesting and very unique in that in his case, it is Bruce Wayne that is the mask.  Batman is far more real then Bruce is.