Flight versus Invisibility

Last week on our way home from Chicago we listened to an episode of This American Life entitled Superpowers.  One of the acts asked a simple question: You have been granted one superpower and you have to chose between flight and invisibility. 

It was an interesting debate.  Flight was portrayed as a virtuous superpower that only the truly selfless would chose, while invisibility was made out to be perverse power that would only be used to satisfy our most basal needs (think stealing and peeping tom).  Peggy knew right away which one she would chose...Flight (so did most of the people interviewed).  I on the other hand felt fairly indifferent about either superpower (if those powers alone really can be classified as a superpower).

I thought about this for longer then I care to admit during my run today.  On one hand, is the power of flight really so virtuous?  Sure you could fly around town delivering meals to the homeless or delivering that extra special piece of mail to a member of our military in the Middle East.  I am sure there are other virtuous uses, but wouldn't most people really just use their power of flight to satisfy their own needs (think dinner in Thailand or sunset in Hawaii)?

And does invisibility really mean stealing at your whim and cowardly self mutilation is your only motive?  I tried to think of how invisibility could be used for good.  Invisibility could allow you as a parent to view your child in a different light by watching them with their friends unchecked, giving you new insight to who they are as people.  Invisibility could be used to monitor politicians in those back room meetings to ensure that they are truly upholding the people's values and not simply their own.  You could monitor your local favorite Chinese restaurant to make sure they aren't serving neighborhood pets in their General's chicken.  Think about it you could expose so many unsavory truths in this world making it a better place!  I concede that the pure nature of invisibility does make it more on the edge than flight, which could lead you down the path of evil, but I disagree that by choosing flight you are somehow choosing a more virtuous path.

I am still unsure of which power I would select.  Peggy, an introvert, made a statement that certainly rang true to this introvert, and that is...I have spent most of life invisible so why would I select invisibility?  This is a good point, but I have to imagine there is something different than the invisibility made popular by Burt Campbell in the late 70's and true invisibility.  So which one is it...

Scorecard:  Total mileage hit 33 this week.  Long run completed today was 15 miles.  Body aches almost all the time, but I am feeling strong.