The Bionic Man!

When I was a kid, I would reach down and lift up my toy box in slow motion like I had superhuman strength similar to the Bionic Man from the ABC Television show The Six Million Dollar Man. I would mimic the mechanical “tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh” sound he made when he lifted something and imagine that the box was a heavy steel beam that had trapped four kids playing near an abandoned cave. Later I would run in place imagining that I was running faster than a speeding car chasing down the bad guys.

The Six Million Dollar Man ran from 1973 to 1978 and was about about a fictional former astronaut, Colonel Steve Austin, played by Lee Majors, who had a horrific crash, testing a new NASA spacecraft. He’s on his death bed but surgeons are able to rebuild him.

Oscar Goldman tells the surgeons, “We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.”

And boy did they rebuild him. Austin’s right arm, legs and left eye are replaced with “bionic” implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norms. He can run at speeds of over 60 mph, and his eye has a zoom lens and infrared capabilities, while his bionic limbs have the power and strength of a bulldozer. He uses his new powers to serve as a secret agent and save the world from horrible threats.

Of course it wasn’t just me that pretended he was bionic. (Check out my story, Better . . . stronger . . . faster! on The Heart of the Matter on other ways the show impacted me.) When the show first came out and the miniature Six Million Dollar Man action figure was all the rage, most of my friends in school imagined we were bionic too. During recess we would act out that we were strong like Austin and throwing each other across the school yard.

My imagination though would often be my downfall. When I got home from school, I would get carried away and try to push my big brother out of the way. Unfortunately for me, he was five years older than me and would just swat me away like he was the one with the bionic muscles and I was the mere human.

I would get pushed to the ground every time, but each time I got back up and went at it again. It taught me the value of resilience, perseverance, and picking yourself back up. Now if only they could make those two traits into a cool kids show then we’d be getting some where.

Related Story:

Better . . . stronger . . . faster!

On The Heart of the Matter