My superhero

I was never heavily into comic books when I was a kid. I mean, I enjoyed reading Thor and Spider Man and, most of all, The Avengers and all, but I was never a collector or anything. I did, however, love my Mego world's greatest heroes action figures, so I guess I did really like superheroes generally. But now, I'm obsessed. I love superheroes. Maybe it's because I gravitated towards things that gave me joy and comfort as a kid as soon as my boy was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Maybe it's because the world of imagination and fantasy is one that is just as equally available to my boy as it is to any other child--even if running and jumping is no longer in the cards, at least he and I can read about Iron Man's origin and both think it's pretty darn cool.

And then there's the X-Men. One of them shares a name with my boy and then there's the superhero in a wheelchair--Professor Xavier, or Professor X. What a cool character, what a great role model, what a wonderful thing to have a SUPERHERO in a wheelchair! The first two things I bought for myself as a direct result of learning my family is on this journey were (1) a photo of FDR in a wheelchair, and (2) a fucking awesome Professor X statue. Both for my office, both as constant reminders that my boy, too, can see himself as President and as a superhero.

So today, he's finally old enough to appreciate his very own Professor X. So, I found a cool action figure on amazon -- from the X-Men movie. Patrick Stewart as Professor X in a wheelchair. I can't wait until it gets here. And my boy's face lit up when I told him about the superhero in a wheelchair and about the toy coming that he can play with.

He may play with this toy and see Professor X as a great superhero, but my boy is my superhero. And no father has ever been as lucky.