Westside Story – Superhero

Contributor – Melvin R. Van Iderstein, Jr.

Covid-19 is overrunning us as it totally weaves itself in and around every facet of our lives. Staying in place and quarantining ourselves does have the benefit of providing us with the opportunity to contemplate the issues of the day.

One of my loyal readers, Melvin R. Van Iderstine, Jr., is highly Covid-19 compliant to the extent that he locked himself in his bathroom and has not come out for months. He even wears a mask inside his own bathroom inside his own home, and no one else lives there. Melvin is a true American hero as he goes to the extreme to flatten the curve.

To do his part to stay in quarantine, Mel orders whatever he wants, including food and entertainment by phone. His order by phone food is delivered through a tiny window above his shower stall, just like in a prison solitary confinement cell. Mel even knows how to order a head.

Mel, a guy who never misses Westside Story, read Westside Story – A Sign of The Times on August 28, 2020, where he noted my comment about phone booths’ disappearance.

Mel has a lot of time to think. This morning, he uncovered a serious problem related to an unintended negative consequence of the societal phenomenon of removing phone booths from planet earth. This problem will impact our youth for generations, and there does not appear to be an answer.

Every child, when growing up, needs a superhero. A good dad will, himself, be a hero to his kid, but most dads will not be a superhero because that would require wearing a cape. Most dads will not be caught dead wearing a superhero cape. Historically, that is where the superhero, Superman, came in.

How can a modern-day father be a good dad with the advent of the smartphone pushing all our phone booths off the planet?

With the total annihilation of the phone booth, there simply is no longer a way to explain Clark Kent and Superman.

Do you see the problem Mr. Van Iderstine is referring to?

We certainly pay the price for modern technology, including the loss of our superheroes.

In the absence of phone booths, who shall serve as a superhero to future kids?

Harvey Weinstein?