Alter Ego Vacation

I don’t know how many people do this, but when we watch a movie or a tv show, we think of who among the characters (if anyone) are like the people in our family. Thanks to Netflix (we don’t have cable), we’ve gotten to enjoy the show Leverage.

If you haven’t watched Leverage, it’s a show where a group of former thieves decide to use their skills to right the wrongs of the world. Each member of the group has a particular skill. There is the grifter, the hacker, the hitter, the thief, and the mastermind.

If Cal were a member of the team, he’d be the hitter. When he was in college he worked at a psychiatric hospital as a “strong man.” He’d take down the PCP-addled “patients” that the police dropped off. Cal was very good at taking addicts down.

I could assign the children to various other positions, but I’m not sure they’d all be happy with what I assigned them. Okay, okay. Jake’s the hacker, Ariel’s the grifter, and Matt and Luke could double up and be the mastermind. That’s leaves me as the thief. It’s not that I like to steal. I don’t. And I’ve never been a good liar. But there’s one trait I share with Parker—the desire to catch air. Parker jumps off the roofs of buildings and down elevator shafts. Parker blows things up with C4. I’d love to free fall and blow things up. Ka Boom! But most importantly, Parker climbs through air ducts! I have a secret desire to climb through air ducts and enter and exit buildings undetected by security.

I’m sure that I’m not the only spy/thief/risk-taker wannabe. Wouldn’t it be fun to go on a spy/thief vacation?