He doesn’t have a cool comic book name, but he’s still a Superhero

On WDAM, we interviewed Kermas Eaton about his father, Alvin Eaton, recently. Kermas talked about his dad as a superhero. You could see the love in his face when Kermas spoke.

And it got me thinking about superheroes. We all have our favorites.

I’m not a big comic book guy, but I have a few favorite superheroes. I want to tell you about one. This guy is as big as the Hulk, as smart as Spiderman, and is as intimidating as Batman. And, a bit like Superman, when he puts on a regular suit no one can tell who he is.

Well, I mean, I know.

There are stories of him, literally, picking cars up out of ditches. Fighting off the bad guys with his bare hands. Building masterpieces in his spare time. In the next episode he is even getting married. Given the pandemic and my schedule, I have to watch it on DVR, though.

He doesn’t have a cool comic book name, though. No one calls him Gigantor or anything. Just what’s on his Driver’s License. He was “U.P.” in my phone for years. Appropriate. I always looked ‘up’ to him.

I call him Uncle Pete. Still. Even in my 30s.

See, my uncle, is one of my favorite superheroes.

He may not know it, but he has played a superhero-like role in my life. In part, perhaps, because he is literally so big. As a kid, I remember riding around in his Jeep, going to his body building competitions, he even helped to teach me how to ride a bike. He taught me that Jaguars were “ugly, ugly, ugly” and how to flex my muscles (not that it did me any good at 5 years old).

What’s so super, you ask?

I used his biceps as a pull-up bar – until I was 13. I’ve seen him hold an entire ceiling of a house up with one hand. He scaled two towers in Portland, running up every flight up stairs from the bottom to the top. Not in a single bound, sure, but that is still quite the feat.

I have never even heard him say “ouch.” Not once. In more than 35 years. He rides his bike more miles in a day than I drive to work in a week. And WDAM is out in the sticks.

But it’s more than just strength. He built his car, a Datsun 510, from scratch. Like, built it. Heck, he sold me my first car! And at 16, that felt pretty super itself. When I got to college, he helped me get an interview at a part time job to help pay for tuition.

He taught me that growing up wasn’t a race. Reminded me to stop and learn how things work, so I could fix it if it broke. But also that I needed to work hard enough to get a good enough job so that I didn’t have to fix everything myself. He always said enjoy life first. He helped shape a lot of my hobbies, too. He is the reason I love biking. He is the reason I love cars. He encouraged me to get into CAD in high school. I was almost an architect.

Super. Hero.

But now he is sick. For a while we thought it was COVID. Turns out it is the other C word.

And it is one of the most difficult things my mind has ever had to wrestle with.

I mean, this is a guy who is the physical embodiment of those Chuck Norris jokes. My uncle can dribble a bowling ball! He can count to infinity! My uncle isn’t afraid of the dark, The Dark is afraid of my uncle.

Short of lifting, like, 500 pounds up over his head, I don’t think I’ve seen – or even heard of – him being physically tested in my life.

Yet, I’m told this thing has kept him on the couch more often these days.

People don’t always thank superheroes in the comics. Spiderman taught us that. Superheroes, are expected to always be there, too. Sometimes without support. That is just what they do, after all.

But in real life, thanking those who consistently ‘save the day’ is important. Superheroes deserve to know how much they matter. And they need to know what they are fighting for. And who cares.

So, Uncle Pete, thank you for everything. You’ve taught me a lot. Helped me grow as a man. In my 35-plus years on this planet I’ve never seen you take a loss. You have hurdled every obstacle – sometimes literally. From bench press to cyclo-cross. You’re a finisher.

This is just one more notch to add to your championship belt. Another kind of difficulty to defeat. A new kind of mountain to traverse.

And I’ve never seen you back down from a challenge. Nor fail at conquering one. So I know you’ll beat this.

So do what you do, Superhero. Go beat the bad guy. And ‘get the girl’ in the process.

We believe in you. We know you can do it.