Your Father's a Hero

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We all have a father. With so many single mothers raising kids fathers have become the new species that is on the endangered list. If you look at the way men in general are looked at nobody seems too concerned. It does not take a father to have a child, we have sperm banks that can do that. A father is a person who steps up to take on the role without being asked. It is an honor and a privilege.

In the movie Men in Black 3 we get to see what it means to be a father.  Cut to K and J, who are neutralizing a bunch of people who witnessed a flying saucer crash.  They head back to Men in Black headquarters, where K delivers a eulogy for the recently departed Z.  K is short and impersonal, and J is bugged because he thinks K is too closed-off - they’ve been partners for 14 years now, and they still barely talk.  J wishes he was closer to K because J lost his father when he was very young (huge foreshadowing, obviously). Agent O is the new chief of Men in Black, and it appears that she has some kind of history with K, but K won’t give J any details.  J asks O what happened with K on July 16th, 1969, and O says, “Something that changed him.  Leave it at that.  Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to.” Towards the end of the movie an adorable little black boy runs over and says, “Daddy, Daddy!  What happened to my daddy?”  Obviously it’s Young J.  Young K says, “There’s one thing you need to know, son.  Your father is a hero.” J goes back to the present and finds Old K, who is alive and well.  J now knows that K has been watching him and protecting him his whole life, ever since his father was killed at Cape Canaveral.  They sit down in a diner and have some pie together.

We have a challenge that is facing all of us right now. When you are called to father a person do you answer the call or not. The part of taking on a challenge that you don’t have to if you don’t want to, that’s a choice. There are not enough people right now that will be a mentor. It takes time and a commitment to help without an expectation of anything back. You don’t need to be perfect, just good enough. There is a time when you will have to even father yourself.

Nobody had a perfect father. It is a role that they were tossed in to and you need to learn it as you go.  If they did the best that they could then they are that hero. Just know that there are fathers all around you that are your heroes. At the time they seem like they don’t have your best interest in mind when they give you a push to do something you don’t think you need, they are looking out for you. 

I really like the underlining message that was in the movie Men in Black 3. To me is said to remember all of you fathers because they are heroes.

Tony Sparrow