My Hero

Some thoughts on fatherhood

(Note: This essay first ran two years ago on Father’s Day.)

This is All Might. If you’re not familiar, he’s a character in the anime series, My Hero Academia. He’s my favorite character. He is a quintessential hero. A good guy. A role model. He’s strong in body and in character.

I’m posting about him today, because this figurine (action figure?) is a Father’s Day gift from one of my sons. I like it so much that I am displaying it prominently on my bookshelf, which is visible when I record videos and TV segments.

Let me be honest, though: Anime always seemed weird to me. Still does. But my son loves it, and so I wanted to give it a chance. (Lesson: If you want to have things in common with your kids, sometimes you have make it happen.)

I’m still not a big fan of anime, but I am a big fan of my son. So we watch the show together. And as a consequence, I’m now a legit fan of All Might.

If you’ve never seen the show, there are two things you need to know about this character that also make him relevant to today’s topic, which is fatherhood.

First, All Might secretly cannot maintain his hero form for more than a few hours. Most people only see the glamorous muscular hero as he swoops in to save the day, but All Might’s real friends know the skinny weakling that lies beneath the costume.

Sound familiar? Every father — every leader — must convey confidence and aspire to some form of sacrifice and even heroism. To do this, we must rise above our fears and weakness and doubts about our own abilities and strength.

Second, All Might is the mentor to a fatherless young man named Deku, who is the show’s main character.

Actually, “mentor” might be too weak a term. All Might has passed along his superpowers to Deku, who earned them based on demonstrating heroism and sacrifice.

All Might knows that his own days are numbered, and that Deku will soon replace him as the world’s top peacekeeper.

But here’s the thing: All Might is happy to train young Deku to replace him, the same way a good father is proud when his children surpass him.

Indeed, it has been said that your father is the only person who is truly happy when you do.

This rings true.

Let’s take my dad, for example. He was a prison guard for thirty years. That is to say, he voluntarily went to jail for three decades so that I could go to college and get paid to write and talk about politics and ideas.

Talk about servant leadership. Talk about sacrifice. Talk about heroism.

I miss you, dad!

As you might imagine, Father’s Day is full of mixed emotions for me. I miss my dad, who died in 2004. But getting to be a dad is the most fun and rewarding job in the world. And — to the degree that I’m good at the job — it is mainly because my father set a great example.

If your dad is around, give him a call, go see him, and ask him to have a catch. You have no idea how much I wish I could do that one more time.

And if you are a dad, make sure your kids know you’ll always be there for them like this guy.

You, too, can be a hero!