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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
May The Force be with you
By Luke Hales
Published September 28, 2009 A lot of little boys want to be policemen or firefighters or army guys or whatever.
I wanted to be a Jedi.
To be honest, I still do.
You know … from “Star Wars?”
Okay. Just checking.
I keep waiting for some dude in a robe and an English accent to come teach me how to break stuff with my mind and fight with a light saber.
Can’t stop believing now. It could be any day.
Like most kids of a certain age, I grew up on “Star Wars.” I still have a very special place in my heart for the first three movies. When I was in the hospital for hernia operations at the ages of three and four (I don’t know how that happened, but now I’ve got abs of steel. They’re buried under a healthy layer of insulation.), my folks procured action figures for me to play with while I was stuck there.
And, even then, the Jedi were heroes to me. No, more than that, they were role models.
Sort of.
I mean, you can’t very easily ask a Jedi’s advice on stuff, unless of course they’re dead and appear to you in your mind or something. Sure, if you’re trying to drop a photon torpedo into a 2-inch-by-2-inch exhaust pipe on a moon-sized space station, they’re right there. But just try and get help with talking to girls or throwing a baseball, and nothing. Not a word.
Disappointing as that was, my faith never wavered. As a youngster, “The Force” held such mystery for me. I always thought that was so cool, the “Let the Force be with you,” and “Luke … use The Force …” stuff. Of course, I was all about any character with my name who turned out to be a serious punisher of evil dudes. But Luke Skywalker paled in comparison to Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was without a doubt the smoothest operator ever to swing a blade.
As I got older, I began to realize that “The Force” was much like the idea that God is in everything at the same time, a guiding hand in our world. This was an idea I could get down with. I started to compare the two, and I started to think that maybe when Luke Skywalker was using “The Force,” maybe he was kind of, you know, praying to God.
And then George Lucas came along with that abomination “Stars Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace,” and proceeded to explain that some little microscopic things called “midichlorians” were responsible for how in tune one was with The Force. This set me on my ear; to me, this was akin to saying that having a high skin cell count meant you were impervious to fire.
And let me just tell you, that is not true at all. Trust me.
I chose not to believe that bit, instead sticking with my original concept.
Of course, there’s nothing cooler than the light saber. These guys went running around with these things samurai-style, hacking and slashing and all sorts of other stuff. And they did it so dramatically, as if you were watching a movie.
Hmm …
You know, in retrospect, the Jedi strike me as very similar to samurai. They lived by a code much like Bushido, which the samurai clung to with all their hearts. They wandered the galaxy restoring order and whatnot. And on top of that, they had those sweet-looking robes.
I used to have a light saber or two. Oh, the fights I had with those things. Nothing like a serious throw-down with light-up plastic blades.
Then my Dad requisitioned mine to make a particle-beam proton accelerator for a ‘Ghostbusters” costume. I was mad at first, but the more I think about it, I bet that was a pretty cool-looking costume.
I have a light saber now, actually. It’s ridiculous; it has interchangeable parts, and the blade can be three different colors. My brother gave it to me for Christmas one year, and at first I was confused as to its usefulness.
Then I went back into a dark bedroom and swung that bad boy around until I broke a light fixture. Reality 1, Fake Jedi 0.
Ah, the Jedi and I have had our ups and downs over the years, but to be honest, there’s still no other club I’d like to join. I’m all about a group that adheres to a moral code, defends the weak and oppressed, and stays in tune with their deity constantly.
May The Force be with you.
And may God be with you too.
Luke Hales is the assistant managing editor for The Baytown Sun.
Published September 28, 2009 A lot of little boys want to be policemen or firefighters or army guys or whatever.
I wanted to be a Jedi.
To be honest, I still do.
You know … from “Star Wars?”
Okay. Just checking.
I keep waiting for some dude in a robe and an English accent to come teach me how to break stuff with my mind and fight with a light saber.
Can’t stop believing now. It could be any day.
Like most kids of a certain age, I grew up on “Star Wars.” I still have a very special place in my heart for the first three movies. When I was in the hospital for hernia operations at the ages of three and four (I don’t know how that happened, but now I’ve got abs of steel. They’re buried under a healthy layer of insulation.), my folks procured action figures for me to play with while I was stuck there.
And, even then, the Jedi were heroes to me. No, more than that, they were role models.
Sort of.
I mean, you can’t very easily ask a Jedi’s advice on stuff, unless of course they’re dead and appear to you in your mind or something. Sure, if you’re trying to drop a photon torpedo into a 2-inch-by-2-inch exhaust pipe on a moon-sized space station, they’re right there. But just try and get help with talking to girls or throwing a baseball, and nothing. Not a word.
Disappointing as that was, my faith never wavered. As a youngster, “The Force” held such mystery for me. I always thought that was so cool, the “Let the Force be with you,” and “Luke … use The Force …” stuff. Of course, I was all about any character with my name who turned out to be a serious punisher of evil dudes. But Luke Skywalker paled in comparison to Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was without a doubt the smoothest operator ever to swing a blade.
As I got older, I began to realize that “The Force” was much like the idea that God is in everything at the same time, a guiding hand in our world. This was an idea I could get down with. I started to compare the two, and I started to think that maybe when Luke Skywalker was using “The Force,” maybe he was kind of, you know, praying to God.
And then George Lucas came along with that abomination “Stars Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace,” and proceeded to explain that some little microscopic things called “midichlorians” were responsible for how in tune one was with The Force. This set me on my ear; to me, this was akin to saying that having a high skin cell count meant you were impervious to fire.
And let me just tell you, that is not true at all. Trust me.
I chose not to believe that bit, instead sticking with my original concept.
Of course, there’s nothing cooler than the light saber. These guys went running around with these things samurai-style, hacking and slashing and all sorts of other stuff. And they did it so dramatically, as if you were watching a movie.
Hmm …
You know, in retrospect, the Jedi strike me as very similar to samurai. They lived by a code much like Bushido, which the samurai clung to with all their hearts. They wandered the galaxy restoring order and whatnot. And on top of that, they had those sweet-looking robes.
I used to have a light saber or two. Oh, the fights I had with those things. Nothing like a serious throw-down with light-up plastic blades.
Then my Dad requisitioned mine to make a particle-beam proton accelerator for a ‘Ghostbusters” costume. I was mad at first, but the more I think about it, I bet that was a pretty cool-looking costume.
I have a light saber now, actually. It’s ridiculous; it has interchangeable parts, and the blade can be three different colors. My brother gave it to me for Christmas one year, and at first I was confused as to its usefulness.
Then I went back into a dark bedroom and swung that bad boy around until I broke a light fixture. Reality 1, Fake Jedi 0.
Ah, the Jedi and I have had our ups and downs over the years, but to be honest, there’s still no other club I’d like to join. I’m all about a group that adheres to a moral code, defends the weak and oppressed, and stays in tune with their deity constantly.
May The Force be with you.
And may God be with you too.
Luke Hales is the assistant managing editor for The Baytown Sun.