“We were drinking pop, eating pizza and watching the Superman movie with Christopher Reeves where he loses his powers (Superman II or III?) I’d never seen it before. At one point in the movie, Superman is in a restaurant and he turns his back to a man who attacks him from behind. I think the …

We were drinking pop, eating pizza and watching the Superman movie with Christopher Reeves where he loses his powers (Superman II or III?) I’d never seen it before. At one point in the movie, Superman is in a restaurant and he turns his back to a man who attacks him from behind. I think the man either punched or kicked him in the back and he experienced amazing pain, and maybe became paralyzed, I don’t recall now, but at any rate, the cruelty of the act, along with the sheer pain he felt, struck me like I’d been hit.

“It was odd, because I’d never felt a particular affinity for Superman (and it was just a movie). Why should I over-identify with his pain? And yet I did, so here’s what happened when I took on Superman’s pain…”