Everyone knows the story of the ultimate boyscout Superman. The Superman storyline has been rebooted more times than I can recall, but one such reboot took place in the 80’s shortly after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, story arc. In that universe, Kryptonite was made much rarer and many of the multicolored varieties were eliminated. The only sample of Kryptonite on Earth was a single fist-sized chunk, caught in the tail of the infant Kal-El’s (Superman) rocket and carried to Earth along with him upon the explosion of Krypton.

This sample had been stolen by rogue government operatives before Superman ever knew of it and cut apart for examination. Several of these samples ended up in the possession of criminals, especially Lex Luthor, who used a piece to power the cyborg Metallo and, after discovering its debilitating effects on Kryptonians, LL created a ring with a Kryptonite gem to keep Superman at bay.

This backfired badly on Luthor, as long-term exposure to Kryptonite radiation from the ring gave him cancer, leading to the amputation of his hand and then apparent death. Superman took possession of the ring and entrusted it to Batman, stating that he was the only person he could trust with the ability to kill him if necessary.

All of this is just a fictional and a fancy metaphor to the point I’m trying to make. Superman “entrusted” Batman with the ONLY thing in this universe not named Doomsday that could kill him. He didn’t give it to the Green Lantern (a dude who knows a little something about rings right?) or the Flash. He didn’t give it to Shazam, Wonder Woman or even Aquaman. Any one less than Batman wasn’t considered. Superman was steadfast.

Don’t give ‘em Kryptonite. I wasn’t always, but in my younger age, I’ve grown to be a pretty cocky guy. No, no, no… I know some of you have trouble believing it, but it’s true.(smile) And I don’t care one bit about it either. But because of my cockiness, I’ve also grown quite complacent. And unfortunately, my complacency went hand in hand with my mouth running off a mile a minute with personal intel.

Mentally, I’ve been in a place for the better part of 2 years trying to rectify some inequities and in the past, I inadvertently showed my cards. In essence, showing weaknesses I probably shouldn’t have exposed. Well, it bothers me because I would think that if there are a group of people that you can show or share your weaknesses with, it would be your closest friends and family. I am Superman and they are my Batman.

Well, how’s this for a sticky situation? What do you do when you have people in your inner circle (close friends or family) that use your weaknesses against you? What if after trusting Batman with Kryptonite, Batman decided to use it against Superman? Going back to my previous question, I have to be “frank.” I’m sorry, I just didn’t have a plan set aside that included the same people I shared these things with, were the same ones that would be using those very same things against me.

And that got me thinking about the importance of never showing your weaknesses, and how important it is to never, ever expose them to anyone, not even someone close to you. But, even THAT is b.s. isn’t it? I mean, not EVERYONE will use your weakness against you. Not everyone will make you pay for sharing it with you, and not everyone is responsible for the actions that 1 (or a few) took against me. So, should they all pay for it? The answer is a resounding “of course not.”

Contrary to what I’m writing here, showing your weaknesses to a friend or family is NOT a mistake. Not always. Let’s say for the sake of argument, I was to tell you I have an aversion to roaches. I share this weakness with my bestest bud Scoobie. And one day, in the fit of an argument, Scoobie says, “well you know what MF! I thought that I’d get a cooler full of roaches and that’s right! I’ma let the entire mother lode of all of those sticky sons-of-bitches out into your car. WITH YOU IN IT!!!”

His reaction and the method he chose to deal with our argument, had absolutely NOTHING to do with the argument. Obviously, using this extreme tactic would be a major advantage to Scoobie the Antogonizer practically paralyzing me in the process. Why would my bestest bud do such a heinous thing to me? Is it because he could? I practically placed that Kryptonite rock into the palm of his hand.

Heck, I may as well had gift-wrapped it too. What’s funny is, 2 years ago, I probably would have revealed right here in this blog what weaknesses I have, and which ones have been used against me in the past. But I play it safe nowadays picking very carefully who knows what. I hate playing the guarded individual, but when in Rome.

When I listened to Hal Urban’s audio book last summer, a line in his journal stood out to me. It went “A man’s standing in his universe is a reflection of his actions, reputation, demeanor, and respectability. Each facet of his standing takes years to build, through the promises he has made and kept and the discretion he has used with the information he has been privy to along with who he has shared that information with.”

I hear you loud and clear Hal. However, I believe it simply takes one itsy bitty crack to destroy that mans’ standing in seconds when his strength of character comes into question. It doesn’t take much for someone to destroy you; it only takes the right misstep.

And all across history, there was one common trait that was shared by all of the great generals, business tycoons, warriors, rulers and Supermen. They successfully and repeatedly exploited the weaknesses of their enemies. How else was one going to win?

And the worse part is this. ANYONE can use your weaknesses against you, NOT JUST YOUR ENEMIES. Someone very close to you ( business associates, your girlfriends, your boys, your friends, your wife, your husband, etc., etc., etc..) knows some small facet of your life that they can use against you when the time is right. And unfortunately, the ones that are the closest to you are always the ones who will be able to inflict the most damage (collateral or otherwise), because you NEVER expected your weakness to be used against you by someone you trust.

And all you did was merely place Kryptonite into their hands. Sadly, not every Superman has a Batman that they can trust.