In case you haven’t heard, a small little indie film called
Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out this weekend. For anyone who’s ever met
me, it probably didn’t take long to figure out I kinda like Star Wars. Just a
little.
And with the release of The Force Awakens, I’ve actually
been very introspective as to why. Why do I love Star Wars so much?
Star Trek is cool, but it’s not Star Wars.
I really fell in love with The Lord of the Rings franchise
(oddly, I’d nev
er heard of it until the movies were announced). But it’s not
Star Wars.
Harry Potter is an amazing universe. But it’s not Star Wars.
And I’ve been pondering why I still act like an 8 yr old kid
with this stuff. The older I get, the deeper I get into it. Maybe I’m just
immature. Some would certainly agree with that hypothesis. But, it goes deeper
than that. I’m ‘immature’ because I think there’s a real value in embracing
living life with as much innocence as possible. It’s an ugly world. I choose to
enjoy it through ‘immature’ eyes because I have to deal with it in ‘adult’
ways. I don’t apologize for that. I’m certainly no fool. I think part of living
with that perspective allows me to see the best in people. To give people more
credit than maybe they often deserve.
To live life with A New Hope each day.
A worldview like mine probably lends itself to a certain naiveté,
but I think it has more to do with hope in humanity than truly being naïve. I’m
not dumb. I’m not really immature. I just refuse to let the world I live stay
ugly.
That’s a strange direction in a blog about Star Wars, but I’m
thought-streaming here. Get over it.
It’s interesting to me how Star Wars has helped shape my
worldview in that regard. I’m not getting into the whole argument regarding any
religious/faith-based conflicts. My love for Star Wars doesn’t compare (or
compete) with my faith in Christ.
But, I keep asking myself, “Why do I love Star Wars so much?”
Star Wars, at its core, is a story of hope. It’s about overcoming
oppressive odds to find the best in yourself to help others. It can certainly mean
so much more, but there’s an innocence in what Star Wars represents. The
characters and lore can certainly be examined deeper and more philosophically. I’d
love to go through that exercise sometime.
But, people who don’t get it just don’t think about it the
way I do. And that’s ok… but it’s interesting to think about the impact it has
had on my life.
Before The Force Awakens, the total runtime for the Star
Wars movies is 797 minutes. How can 797 minutes mean so much to someone? Well,
for one, I grew up with the movies. I saw each one in the theater. And everything
is magical when you’re a kid. One of my earliest memories is of getting in
trouble (or crying about SOMETHING) and my dad taking me to the Chateau in
Irving to see Star Wars. I swear it felt like I saw it in the theater 20 times.
It was probably two.
I then remember our very first cable box and staying up
until midnight watching HBO. No idea what was on, but I saw a promo for Star
Wars and thought it’d be cool to see that again. I didn’t really know how HBO was
structured, but I remember being really tired and about to go to bed. I decided
to see what was coming on next and the Lucasfilm logo came on and I thought
that looked familiar. Then the 20th Century Fox banner came on… Then…
Then the music. The title scroll. Sleep would wait. I can’t
tell you how excited I was that I was lucky enough to catch the very first
showing of Star Wars on TV ever. So cool then. So cool to think about now.
But, all in all, 797 minutes is an insignificant about of
time. But, think about it… I grew up with Star Wars. That meant I had a lot of
the toys and action figures. So, I spent untold hours playing in that universe.
I remember being at Twin Oaks daycare and the girl I liked
(yes, I was a Mac Daddy long before kindergarten) let me play with her Luke
doll while she played with Princess Leia. All the other boys were jealous… but
I WAS LUKE and they weren’t!!! (I guess that was a poetic precursor to me
always being ‘like a brother’ to most girls I happen to like…lol) He even had
his own rope and blaster. So cool. J
I remember going to Northpark Mall with my dad to see The
Empire Strikes Back. That’s where I found out Darth Vader is Luke’s father!!!
Whaaaaaat?!? Walking back to the truck, my brain was just in stunned disbelief.
How could this be? What did it all mean??
I remember my now-gone cousin Denise taking me to Golden
Triangle Mall to see Return of the Jedi. There were even Revenge of the Jedi
posters. I freakin’ remember those!!! The only toy I remember my grandmother buying me while we
were out and about? A die-cast X-Wing fighter.
The movies and universe blew me away. The memories and
nostalgia still do.
I even enjoyed the Prequels because I loved getting more
context into the alternate universe I so badly wanted to be real. Although, for
the record, I did cringe at Jar Jar even then.
I can’t fully define what it is about Star Wars than
captured me. I really wish I could. Lord knows I’ve been trying to come up with
really smart-sounding rationale to make myself feel good.
There are really cool characters. Really funny ones. Really
minor ones that have long backstories. Really major ones than have mysterious
origins. It has royalty. Rebels. Good guys. Bad guys. Flawed guys who become good.
Good guys who suffered failure even though they had good intentions. Pretty
girls. Ugly aliens. Weird robots. And everything served a purpose. That’s the
genius of it all. We know it’s fake… but it all is so deep and fleshed out, it
feels like it could be real in a galaxy far, far away.
But that’s still not it. Where I think the power in Star
Wars lies is in the connection to the most powerful human convention. Something
mysterious. Something so versatile it means different things to different
people. Something even more nebulous than love.
Star Wars represents hope.
Hope against all odds. Hope that we have something inside us
that makes us more than we think we are. Hope that even when we face
temptation, we can still choose good. Hope that while power is powerful, honor and
doing right is more so. And hope that even though there are bad people in this
world, maybe there is still good in them. (Jesus sure thinks so). Hope that
there could be someone out there you don’t know that can impact your world in
such a way you will never forget. Hope that lightsabers could really exist at
some point in my lifetime. J
It’s fitting the original is called A New Hope. The older we
get, the more we need hope.
Hope isn’t immature. Hope is powerful. Hope is innocent.
Hope is pure. Hope is how I live my life.
The Force may be the overriding ‘power’ in the Star Wars
universe that connects all living things. But, I think The Force is really
Hope. Hope connects us to ourselves. To each other. To what could be.
So, with that… May the Force be with you.
