I was washing dishes this afternoon staring out the window, and had one of those moments when a totally random memory from 30 years ago popped into my brain.

I know you did this when you were a kid.

Do you remember going through that phase when you were like 10 or 11 and maybe after watching a movie or tv show that showed someone with telekenesis, you just HAD to see if you were one of many people, hiding out THERE somewhere, who had been born with this amazing gift?

I don't know why this memory, out of all of the ones floating around in the goo in my brain, came to the surface. But there it was.

I remember sitting at our kitchen table, staring at a salt shaker for like 20 minutes trying all sorts of tricks with my mind to get that stupid thing to move. I tried to move other things, too, like pulling pictures off the wall or even trying to get something light like a paper napkin to move, even just a little.

I asked my wife about this and we both had a good laugh. She remembered doing the exact same thing. There's one other part to the memory too, and that is that we all had the neighbor or the cousin who didn't have telekenesis either, but always knew someone (if the experiences of my wife and I represent the norm, it was a cousin) that had telekenesis.

Of course our first reaction was always skepticism. No way, we'd say. But yes. The cousin would swear -- it was true.

Then why doesn't anybody know about it? we'd challenge. Why doesn't the World know?

And the answer was always the same. Apparently this person, at age 10 or 11, actually has the restraint to not use the ability, not even for fun.

Oh sure, every once in a while she might knock something off a teacher's desk or cause a bully in school to trip. But she also knows that wielding such an amazing power carries an unimaginable burden of responsibility. It isn't something to be taken lightly.

And I remember thinking 2 things:

I still think you're lying...

But then this second thought was right behind it...

I'll bet that's why I don't have the power. I wouldn't be able to control myself...