If you were a superhero, would you fly into a volcano to see what it looks like?

So my 9 year old son asks me the other day “If you were a superhero, would you fly into a volcano to see what it looks like “?  My answer at the time was simply YES! I never went any further than that, I wanted to listen to what he had to say. So, I asked him why he wanted to know.  He replied “if I were a superhero I would go to the Mariana trench and look at the rare animals that live there (talking about the extremophiles).  I imagine they would be small but as nasty as a big monster, even a dragon”.  I ask him “why would they be as nasty as a dragon if they are so small?”  He replies “Because they live in such a extreme environment, maybe they can even breathe lava or ice.”  He assures me humans wouldn’t be able to survive there.  He continued, “Maybe there are even these long scary looking dark eels that can see in the deep sea down in the trench, like having night vision goggles, that would be cool to see. But if I could do anything in the world I would just do a big, giant cannonball into a volcano”.  “You would?” I asked.  “Mom, just imagine it… I can handle all temperatures, so I would just jump in and play in the lava… lava is so cool. But I wouldn’t melt like Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars.  I would fly out afterwards with lava dripping off me”  That would be pretty cool I thought, being able to jump into a volcano.  Later that day, I began asking myself: Why hadn’t I ever thought of  anything like that? I guess over the years of studying and working and all the responsibilities of being an adult that my imagination just slipped out the window.

Today I told my son “If I were a superhero I would love to fly into a volcano and see what’s inside.  I would take pictures with my super powered camera eyes so I could show the world what it looks like inside the lava tubes.  I would collect fascinating crystals and bring them home to put in my collection.”  He asks “Would you swim in the lava?”  “You bet I would.  In fact I would do a backflip from the top of the volcano into the magma and float on my back to look up out through the opening of the volcano”.  “Hey mom, you would be like Lava girl from ‘Shark boy and lava girl’, do you think your hair would glow?”, he replied. I asked “Do you want my hair to glow?”  “Yeah, that would be cool.  I am going to draw your superhero tomorrow.”  “That sounds great”, I replied.  He was satisfied with the little bit of imagination I had.  Sometimes, I forget how awesome my kids are.  And now I am this awesome volcano plunging superhero with glowing hair in his eyes. Nothing can get better than that!