I am Superman.

I float above my city, majestic and regal, cape billowing in the wind; I listen to the bustling crowd. I hear the innocent laughter of babies; whispered conversations between lovers; the cries for help from those who are helpless. I rush to each one, righting the wrongs as quickly as I can. But even Superman cannot be everywhere at once.

I came to this world with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. I am blessed with immense strength, speed, and hearing; I can see through objects, blow out fires with my breath, and fly faster than sound. My body is immune to cold, heat, illness, and even the ravages of age. Yet, I cannot be everywhere. Though it hurts, I cannot save everyone. For all the thousands I've helped and saved, there are many I could not see, or hear, or help in time. I feel the sting of failure and defeat for each soul I do not rescue. Sometimes, it threatens to drown me in sorrow.

I cannot save everyone. But there is one person I will save above all else. I love the people of this world, and will always protect them. But she is different.

Her heartbeat anchors me. The sound of her voice carries in my ears, though I am a continent away. The smell of her is in my nostrils, though I am inside a volcano, relieving its immense pressure. Though I fail to save everyone, I will always save her. To her, I will always be more than a man; for her, I will always be Superman.

Yet, for all my abilities and powers, even I will not be able to save her from the passage of time. Though I have faced and beaten back death, I will not be able to do so for her. She named me, and sees me, as Superman.

I do not know how to live up to that, but I will keep trying, each and every day.


I am not Superman.

I will never catch a jumbo jet in mid-air and settle it to the ground. I cannot fly, nor shoot fire from my eyes, and though I wish it, I do not have x-ray vision. I do not always hear when my name is spoken. I cannot bend steel like paper; my greatest feat of strength came when I carried a man away from the wreckage of his car.

Bullets will not bounce off me. I can bleed. I get sick. And one day, I will die.

I am just a man, who hurt the one woman he cared for the most because he tried to help the family that needed him. She calls me loyal and selfless, and that she loves those qualities in me. The loyalty and selflessness she loves in me is the reason I am away from her. They are the reason the distance has grown between us, as I try to save those who need my help.

That, I am powerless to fight.

And yet, I continue to fight to keep those I love from harm. To keep them as safe as I can make them. To keep her safe, and happy. For her happiness, I would sacrifice everything.

I am not Superman, but I had hoped and wished that she would see me as her Man of Steel, the Man of her Tomorrow. As the one man who sets the bar so high no one can even touch it; to be the one person she knows she can rely on when she is in need. To be her Superman. Her heartbeat anchors me, though I do not hear it from miles away. The sound of her voice carries in my ears, though I am a city away. The smell of her is in my nostrils, though I am surrounded by the fumes of my work. For her, I want to be more, to be better.

For her, I want to be Superman.