Park and I met James Marsters — Spike from Buffy — November 12, 2011 at Austin Comic Con. He was perfectly pleasant, despite my usual frustrating muteness when it comes to meeting famous people. At least with Mr. Marsters, I didn’t babble about body parts like I did with Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek. (Seriously, I have no idea…)
The lasting story I want to share from this experience was tangential to meeting James Marsters. The line for the meet-and-greet snaked around tables where the photos of people who met him prior to us were spread out to be collected later on by fellow participants. We could see James Marsters with others like us — some in convention garb — some in plain clothes, but all of them excited to be there in the presence of someone we enjoyed so much when we saw him on TV.
A group of fellow con-goers ahead of us kept stopping to laugh at and take photos of these photos, making fun of them before posting about them online.
My tiny child, only 13 years old at the time, caught on to what they were doing. Rather than standing idly by to watch, Park went up to the group — all of whom were older than him — and asked, quite politely, for them to stop and to delete their photos.
And they did. There was no kerfuffle. No push back. No fuss. They were just like, “You know what, that’s fair.”
This is an example of my son’s character. This is why I’ve often say I can barely take credit for how much backbone and integrity he has. Because I saw what was happening, but my brain skimmed over it. I didn’t step in. I didn’t intervene. He did. He saw people doing something wrong, and he said something.
That’s why Park will forever and always be my hero.