Within my family there is a story that, pardon the upcoming pun, never dies. It started with my father who upon leaving the Army in the late 50's became a mortician because one of his platoon mates convinced him that since everyone dies there is a lot of money to be made in the mortuary business.  So he went to school and learned to become a mortician only to find out that the real money was in owning the mortuary. He had many funny stories, because as a mortician, he learned to deal with the hard stuff by making jokes about it all. That is probably why I'm the one that you shouldn't look at during serious events and recently was accused of putting the "fun" in funeral. Off beat humor...it's how I deal with the rough stuff. One of his stories was about the original Superman, George Reeves, who my dad embalmed when George died in 1959.  My dad had a similar curl to his hair that he frequently referred to as his "Superman Curl." In the 80's when Christopher Reeves became the new Superman everyone, including my family, thought that George & Christopher were related. Alas they were not, but had they been the next part of the story would be, well, a little creepy.  You see my dad passed away the same weekend Christopher Reeves broke his neck, and we all sort of collectively and simultaneously gasped and laughed at the connection.  You see, Superman was our family's superpower (and the butt of many jokes).

We've all seen the memes on social media that say, "My Superpower is___" or "____is my superpower" and it usually refers to some unique or funny thing that person does. I've posted those many times with things like "Photography is my superpower" or "Sign Language is my superpower." We all read them, laughed, hit the LIKE button, and then moved on to the next meme we stumbled upon in our mindless social media scrolling. Well, that is unless we reposted with the caption, "Samesies" or "Same Girl Same."

There is a superpower that exists that many people fail to notice or have no idea they possess, or if they do notice it they may not realize that it does in fact reside in them. Indeed there are approximately 58 million people in the US that have this unique ability, there are several factors at play which is why that number is just an approximation and why I think the number is actually much higher. Some but not all of the factors include, in no particular order except for the first one: age, appearance, health, socioeconomic status, marital status, profession, and within each factor on that list there are even more variables. 

What, pray tell, is this superpower you ask? Well first off it resides primarily in women but there are plenty of men that have this as well, and the factors are pretty much the same except I have noticed that with men, socioeconomic status & profession are inextricably linked, and health is a close second.  With both, age is driving factor but whether or not you actually appear your age is key. Women tend to be younger than men and therefore possess this superpower for a much longer time.  "That's not fair!" the men may be saying.  Rest assured that the longer in life you can wait to have this superpower the better off you are. There are many other subgroups that have this superpower and some have learned to just accept it and roll with it and others may fight against it because it is so uncomfortable and off-putting. My apologies for the following generalizations but some of the other groups that have this same power (and the age of onset varies) are people with various disabilities and whether or not these are visible. Some examples are: people with physical handicaps that require assistive mobility devices such as canes, walkers, wheelchairs; people who are blind, d/Deaf, or have any form of barrier to communication; people with mental illness; people who are without a home (regardless of why). Again my apologies for the generalities...this list is unfortunately long.

So again you may be asking...what IS this superpower?

 INVISIBILITY 

Yes, all of the above are invisible to those that don't have the same power. For example- I am a woman of a "certain age," divorced military wife, have a communication disorder (my voice -thanks to those pesky tumors) and yes I appear to be invisible to those who aren't like me. I've had younger married women and men alike talk down to me or flat out ignore me; I've had people speak over me because they are louder and because they can; believe it or not I've had other military wives (who are still married) speak to me in such a dismissive manner because I'm no longer in the same "club."  Really?  I've endured deployments, sick kids, moves, more moves... why is my experience now declared null and void? Trust me...this side of that life ain't easy either!

When you are invisible people look right through you, speak as if you are not there, act as if you are taking up unnecessary space, dismiss you as being irrelevant. Pause for a moment ...have you ever done that? No, really, have you ever done that? 

Yeah...invisibility...think about it.