The other day I was watching a extremely short lived Sci-Fi show called Bionic Woman(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880557/) in which this woman(Jamie) has an accident and looses both her legs and her right hand. Her bf being a cutting edge Research Surgeon in Bionics(obviously), replaces the lost limbs and parts of her brain with Bionic limbs and neurons. This gives her super strength and agility, but only in the replaced limbs. During a fight with another complete Bionic Woman(Sarah, played by the hot and cute Katee Sackhoff), Jamie faces the problem of having only one strong(or as they refer to is, "Bionic") arm, which makes the other normal (human) arm as her weakness. Now if she never had the accident and never got the new "features", the other arm would never be called as a weakness of hers.
The metaphor which is more often to to refer weakness is Achilles' Heel. Now, from what I have read and seen in movies, Achilles is a well built man(though mythical) and I am quite sure that his heel is probably stronger than the best of the best. But because of his mighty strength else where, it's considered his weakness and turns out it was a fatal one in deed.
So, is it our strengths that make our weaknesses visible? or Do weaknesses exist to balance out the strengths?
I think our "weaknesses" serve as reminders. Reminders of what we were, where we came from, and that we are all alike, if only because we all have our own weaknesses and strengths.
ReplyDelete