What Makes Me Weak
I fall victim to the Kryptonite of self doubt.
No one likes to admit weakness.
We prefer to present ourselves as strong and capable, fearless and invincible, to the world and to ourselves.
But no one is without their Achilles’ heel, their own personal Kryptonite. It’s different for each of us, of course. But let’s talk about Achilles and Superman for just a minute…
Achilles’ weakness was the one spot where his mother, Thetis, held him while dipping him into the river Styx to make him immortal and physically invulnerable — his heel. Similar to Achilles, Superman’s parents also wanted to protect him and so sent their infant son, Kal-El away from their doomed planet. Superman’s weakness came in the form of Kryptonite, radioactive remnants of his home planet, Krypton.
Of course there are many details to discuss in both cases (and the science behind Kryptonite is rather fascinating), but the commonality I noticed is that for both men, their vulnerability and weakness stemmed from someone or something close to them — something of home.
And that connection is what made me realize that my own greatest weakness is something close to me, of home.
