Thinking about how Man of Steel portrayed Clark experiencing sensory overload as a child as his superhearing and x-ray vision developed, to the point of having a panic attack. And how the movie doesn't directly say this, but it does answer the question of how can Superman ever do anything else, when he can hear people in need of saving all the time. And the answer is that he has the physical capacity to hear all the problems in the world as they happen, but not the mental or emotional capacity to deal with them all. He has to tune them out, to focus on only a few things at a time, or he will be incapacitated and unable to help anyone.
And that's neat in terms of superheroes and all but it's also a lesson for us. Because in the age of digital media, we have the technological capacity to hear about all the world's problems all the time, too. But we also do not have the mental or emotional capacity to deal with them all. We have to tune them out, or we will also be overwhelmed. And it's not a failure on our part to do that, to focus only on the things we do have the capacity to do, the people we do have the ability to help.
So, consider this your reminder. If you're feeling overwhelmed, if the world feels too big, then make it small.
