In my daughter’s eyes
I am an opera singer. I am a daddy. I am OperaDaddy.
I know it’s not the most creative pen name ever, but what it lacks in literary flair it makes up for with its comic book superhero punchiness. Like Daredevil, or Batman, or Cher. But unlike those defenders-of-all-that-is-good, I am only a superhero to one person and one alone: My ten month old daughter, OperaGirl.
In OperaGirl’s eyes I can move mountains (toddler gates,) I can toggle day and night at will (light switch,) I can harness the power of the giant alien food-bearing machine (refrigerator,) and I have a voice like rolling thunder (I happen to think she may be onto something with that one.) She even thinks
I can make her fly when we play “airplane.”
But the truth is, I am a mere mortal. It takes me about fifteen minutes to run a mile. My love of watching baseball and drinking beer has rendered my formerly bullet-repelling abs useless. I have career anxiety. I worry about money. I forget to put the toilet seat down. I leave my dirty socks on the floor (do you think superman ever leaves his cape all balled up in the corner of his closet to get all wrinkled? I think not.) I do however, have a smokin’ hot co-star: OperaWife.
Even with all my not so super-human defects, OperaGirl still smiles at me like I just saved the day, every time I walk in the room. That kind of admiration is hard to come by, even in my profession where people applaud my job well done every time I go to work. Just two weeks ago I took the final bow on a stage that was seventy feet wide in front of a crowd of six thousand people who were on their feet, clapping and cheering for me. But as great as that feeling can be, it doesn’t hold a candle to getting just one of those million dollar smiles.
Everyone should get to be a superhero to somebody.
Join the fray. Read through the following comments and add to the discussion at the end.
August 30, 2006 at 9:05 am
‘...do you think superman ever leaves his cape all balled up in the corner of his closet to get all wrinkled?’
Of course not. That’s preposterous.
Superman’s cape doesn’t wrinkle.