Childhood Dreams

      Since today's date has kind of become a running joke online due to the way you can say it "May the 4th be with you". This instantly brought back insane feelings of nostalgia from my awkward childhood. I can remember the night like it was yesterday. My mother was out of town and my father had a "surprise" for my brother and I. If anyone knows my father, when he uses the word surprise, it's usually the most epic thing ever. It was. My dad brought my brother and I to see the movie Star Wars: A New Hope. This was after it was re released in a remastered format. I was instantly in love like any other typical kid who went to see Star Wars when it first came out in the seventies.

     It's been quite a strange love affair since I saw the first movie back when I was a wee little child. I've even carried the love affair into my days today, mainly quoting Yoda in my philosophy courses but there is a lot to learn for these movies. I have seen every single movie to the point where I can make fun of Hayden Christiansen's "HE'S HOLDING ME BACK!" in episode II while it's actually happening. But I've also learned a lot about life from these movies.

     A couple of my personal favorite Yoda quotes happen in the best of the series of movies, Empire Strikes Back but another one comes from Episode I. He is testing Anakin in the council hall and ask him if he is scared for his mother. Of course he would be scared, they lived on a lawless planet where she'll probably be turned into Bantha fodder. But then the most profound line comes out of the little green master. "Fear turns to anger, anger turns to hate, hate turns to suffering." It's almost a guideline to life there in those 12 words. Although good, the most influential line from the movies is by Yoda once again training Luke on Dagobah.

     The message that rings out in these five minutes is almost a blueprint for human life. A nerdy Sermon on the Mount. I've personally thought of this scene every time I've heard the statement, "I'll try". Yoda tells us that trying is only doing with the intention of failing. So no matter what your challenges are in life, Try Not, there is Do or Do Not, there is no Try. Until the day I die I will love these movies and no one will ever talk me out of not watching Return of the Jedi  at midnight on a Sunday. 

"I Don't Believe it!"

"That, is why you fail"