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Thursday, December 3, 2009

Star Wars to live by

I have to post this here, because I don't know if I can put it anywhere else!
So we went to see "Star Wars--In Concert" last night. It was a lot of fun. People came dressed as Storm Troopers and Jedi; there were a couple of Boba Fetts and at least one Leia (unfortunately wearing glasses).
The actual production was delightful--a quick-cut montage of clips from the films, a live orchestra, laser lights and pyrotechnics made the whole thing definitely worthwhile. And Anthony Daniels, who narrated the piece, worked from memory, not a teleprompter, and put a ton of feeling into what has got to seem (by now) to be a pretty familiar tale. He's charming.
Light saber duels broke out throughout the auditorium during intermission.
The local press was on hand to do video clips of the audience members in their Star Wars regalia--here's a link http://tinyurl.com/y8cqowl
The cool part (to me) was where this one mother said they used Star Wars in their parenting. We do too!
"Is that how a Jedi would act?" we ask. Or, "A Jedi would eat his vegetables."
I even used Star Wars philosophy to explain the nature of God.
My son asked who God was, and I said that it was The Force (I was criticized for that, but we're talking about introducing spiritual concepts to a four-year-old).
I also explained that when a person dies, their body is buried and their spirit goes to Heaven, just like Obi-Wan's did. That also helped to explain the glowing presence of Sir Alec in Episodes 5 and 6.
Also, Episode 2 and 3 helped to explain how people come to make bad choices in life, and the consequences of those choices. Selfishness and fear can lead to the dark side.
So, even though the original trilogy is the best in terms of storytelling, Episodes 1 through 3 are good parenting material.
We've got a lot to be thankful to Star Wars for.

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