Kent is described as mild-mannered. In many portrayals, he is a hick farm boy, a clumsy reporter, and a nerd. He purposefully portrays himself as a weakling so no one will suspect he is actually stronger than a locomotive. Even the female in his life has a not-very-secret crush on Superman while, at the same time, she even seems to loathe Clark Kent.
It is the Kent character that we all relate to, isn't it? We know we will never leap tall buildings, but we will always be noticed more than the bespectacled reporter. Or perhaps we relate to him because we, too, do not want to be noticed. We hide in plain sight, never raising our hands, never going out on a limb, never going the extra mile. Maybe we don't want to shine like a shooting star or stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe we are scared of humiliation or embarrassment, or maybe we will find out we are not as good at something than we thought.
Some of us need to learn how to let those waters roll off of our backs, to not be bothered so much by what other people think. Too many times do we allow others to direct the ways we turn, and too often do we let them throw us off track altogether. We need to put ourselves out there more often, try new things, and take risks. Occasionally, w should raise our hands even if we might get the answer wrong.
Others of us could use a nice dose of mild-mannered in our lives. We try to hard to impress other people, when we could more easily be ourselves. Sometimes we care so much about what other people think that we fail to see what we have to offer. And so what if we don't get the headiest girl on the block. So what if we aren't acknowledged for our great achievement. We don't do things for the recognition anyway, do we? We do things because they are the right things to do.
Let us all seek to be a little more mild-mannered (humble) and a lot less concerned with making our peers look up to us (unless you really can fly).