WWMD?

If you were to ask my wife if I were a “glass-is-half-full” or a “glass-is-half-empty” kind of guy, you wouldn’t have to finish the question because she would stop you mid-sentence with a shout of “Half-Empty! Definitely!”

And I’d have to reluctantly nod my head in agreement.

I insist that it is partly genetics -- just the way I’m wired -- but I think it is also something else. The truth is I spent most of my childhood without a Superhero I could believe in. There was so much going on in the world that I was keenly aware of that desperately needed dealing with! Case in point (and yes, I know it is sad of me to still have in my possession this little gem), something that was given to me as a twelve or thirteen-year-old during a Scout visit to the State Emergency Service headquarters in Hobart:

I spent hours pouring over floor plans, measuring up the back yard, and even more hours spent wondering why something coming from our Country’s top level of government required the following “Important Note”:

Before proceeding to build any fallout shelter, State or Territory authorities should be consulted and the required local government authority approval should be obtained.

After all,  it was  “issued to give some guidance to those who may wish to plan domestic fallout shelter space at moderate cost.” What did they mean “Who may wish”?  Who wouldn’t?!?

On that same visit we were also shown the 1950′s instructional film Duck and Cover which we were told was still pertinent to our safety, even in the eighties. (The film’s song makes a great ring tone!)

I grew up in an era when the terms ICBM, “Mutually Assured Destruction” and “Invasion of Afghanistan” were bandied about on the news, and in the playground. My school books contained epic drawings of vast battle scenes, with helicopters and tanks and stuff. My favourite toys during that time were Matchbox and Corgi military vehicles that my best friend and I would use to stage massive campaigns on the embankment below the netball courts. And we would spend hours planning how we would survive a Russian invasion. Here. In Tasmania. Go figure – it WAS going to happen! I desperately needed someone who would sort this all out for me so that it DIDN’T happen! I needed a SUPER Hero, and truth is I knew that Superman and his ilk (who always seemed to solve away all my friends’ worldly woes), were…

****SPOILER ALERT****

Fictional Characters! (am I going to cop flack for this?)

Fictional in that what made them powerful, invincible, and  incredible were their incredible powers – incredible in the sense that I couldn’t bring myself to believe in them. Even with Superman-The Movie‘s catchphrase, I still couldn’t bring myself to believe a man could fly.

My dreams needed someone who I could believe in!

Angus MacGyver was just that man.

He wasn’t able to stop bullets with his bare hands. He couldn’t run faster than a locomotive or leap tall buildings in a single bound. However he could release hostages with a piece of chewing-gum wrapper and a paper clip. He could divert the Russian fleet with a bottle of white vinegar and a box of bicarb Soda. With ordinary, everyday materials he could “MacGyver” together something that would make anyone think twice about causing global chaos and mahem. He was always able to find a solution to any problem, whether at a global level or local. Nothing was too big, or too small; no wrong couldn’t be righted. And he didn’t use incredible powers -well, not in my teenage eyes- he used his brain, and the stuff around him and everything he did could sorta, almost, really happen. Honest. Even my dad said that “that” might work. So it’s real.

And his glass was always half-full.

I had to wait until I was seventeen for him to arrive, but my Hero has served me well since, and I would trust him with the fate of the world. And whenever I’m stuck in a bind of my own, I only have to ask, “WWMD?”

What Would MacGyver Do?*

Now, if you’ll  excuse me, I’ve just got to go outside and measure up the back yard… I’m thinking an eight birth shelter should fit under there. Not sure what the council or the landlord will think though…

* I’d love to, but I do not claim authorship of this phrase.