A Ramble About The Last Jedi

I went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi last night with my family. As I was thinking about it, I realized that it was never a question of "if" we see it, but "when". then I realized that this was true of everybody I knew as well. There were never any conversations I had overheard where there was some question as to whether or not someone would see it. They always go something like, "So, when are you going to see it?" Or "Have you seen it yet?" (often followed by a mild rebuke if they haven't.)

Truth is, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Star Wars as a whole "is" our modern mythology. It's as much a part of our mythos here and now as the Illiad and Odyssey were to the ancient Greeks. It's the sacred text most moderns proverbially sleep with under their pillows to draw inspiration from regardless of their official religious affiliation. I recall seeing a headline from the parody site "Babylon Bee" about a pastor who lost his license to preach because he failed to reference The Last Jedi in his sermon. It was tongue in cheek, but there was an underlying cultural understanding behind it. These are "our" stories.

To use this analogy further, if "The Force Awakens" was akin to the Odyssey, then "The Last Jedi" is the Illiad. It's the tragedy of Troy where gods and men alike wage a war where there are few if any winners. The Illiad is often referred to as the greater, more mature of the two works, and so it is with "The Last Jedi" in my humble opinion.

There are consequences to actions, no matter how noble the intents. This eighth movie displays this truth in multiple ways. Failure is the greatest teacher, says Master Yoda, and this too is a hard lesson learned for the story's heroes. Things don't always go the way you planned them. The wisdom of one's elders should not be ignored in favor of heroic, if rash action. There is divine purpose beyond what mortals are able to understand, and that purpose is often misinterpreted, and twisted for selfish ends until it is fully revealed. There is light and darkness in everyone. Even heroes and demigods (think about who Luke's "grandfather" was) must pass eventually. Death is not the end, but only the beginning. Mortals are indeed saved by their faith. All of these are lessons which "The Last Jedi" has to teach with spectacular battles both physical and spiritual, drama, humor, and sorrow.

There are those who don't like this installment of Star Wars (even trying to have it recalled). There are also those that would like to edit out certain uncomfortable passages in the Holy Scriptures, or at least leave them unspoken and untaught. Things like rape, genocide, incest, murder by proxy by a Biblical hero; these are the passages that are not taught in children's Sunday Schools, or, if they are, are so sugar coated that they are hardly recognizable. People are uncomfortable with their heroes being seen as anything less than perfect or "good". But "heroes" are human beings, and human beings are deeply flawed no matter how much they want to do the right thing. This was part of the lesson from ancient Greek literature as well. Our fatal flaws tend to be our undoing, especially if we don't learn from them.

Luke Skywalker was, above all else, human. He made mistakes. So also is Poe Dameron. So also is Ben Solo. So also is Rey. Human beings are not cut and dried "good" and "evil". Human beings are complicated. The hubris or humility of one human being affects all other human beings around them in both positive and negative ways. This is reality, and in the Star Wars universe, it is the truth of the Force as well which binds and connects everything one to another, and it is the "unseen" hand of the Force, itself neither wholly light nor wholly dark but a balance between the two, which is seen working to effect its will everywhere in this movie to achieve the equilibrium it wants its own "children" to understand.

I am reminded of an illustration from mathematics I learned years ago. The balance point on the number line is "0". There is no actual beginning or end. The starting point is "0". This can be represented by the equator around a spherical shape. As long as a motion remains locationally at "0", that is, running the circumference of the equator back onto its own path, it remains in balance. Any deviation from "0" however, regardless of how slight, results in the path of the motion spiraling off into infinity regardless of whether it is positive or negative, and balance is lost. The same is true if weight is added to only one side of a scale. Regardless of the amount of weight, balance is lost. Nature abhors a vacuum, and vacuum is imbalance. There are two sides to the Force, not one. This is a lesson both the Jedi and the Sith fail to understand. The Force is balance between them, as Master Skywalker says in the film.

I think that, like every great religious or philosophical text, there are going to be those who don't like what The Last Jedi has to say to them. There are going to be those who prefer the fictitious dichotomy between light and darkness, good and evil, and will militantly protect and advance their points of view, much like the Jedi and the Sith. Such do not understand the great truth which the Force is trying to teach: light and darkness, good and evil, are dependent on each individual's own point of view. Another, similar truth was expressed by Rose in this film, "That's how we are going to win this, not by destroying what we hate, but by saving those we love."

[There are, whether by brilliant deduction on my part, or most likely by sheer coincidence, a couple of things in this movie that share similarities with my own fan fiction stories involving the Jedi. The first is Luke coming to the conclusion that the Jedi must end. This is the same conclusion I had Yoda come to in my story, "Star Trek: Enterprise - The Last Jedi", written prior to the release of "The Force Awakens". The second was the ability of a force ghost to manipulate the physical world in an almost deity like way. Here as in the movie, I had Yoda as an ascended being summon a massive storm to bring lightning to destroy certain targets on a planet's surface. It's Lucasfilm's and Disney's property to begin with so they can do what they want. I was just stoked I wasn't completely off base.]

A Ramble About Being Wicked

A Ramble About Being Wicked

Probably my favorite musical of all I’ve seen is the musical “Wicked”. For those who don’t know, it’s based on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, although it is a much more family friendly version of the story than the original novel (which is a well written, extraordinary work of fiction, but is also definitely not for minors). The storyline centers around Elphaba who would later be known as “The Wicked Witch of the West” and it recounts her early life as well as interweaving with events from The Wizard of Oz.

In the musical as in the book, Elphaba is born different from everyone else, and it is revealed in the book that she was assumed to be sinful and somehow worthless by her parents from a young age only because she was green. All affection is withheld from her and given to her sister whom her parents dote on. She is only able to attend university because her father in particular wants her there to look after her sister which is wheelchair bound. Throughout her life, she has demonstrated “unusual” abilities which she has been shamed into hiding but which come out when she is frustrated or upset. In the musical, one of these displays on her first day at college brings her under the wing of Madam Morrible who teaches sorcery and magic. She is given the hope that she could rise within the system and eventually serve under the Wizard of Oz himself, thus getting the approval, recognition, and even affection she had been denied for most of her life.

Sadly, it was not to be. Elphaba is a compassionate, sensitive person with an ethical code. She is horrified when one of her teachers, a talking animal, regresses into a bestial state. It is her hope upon finally meeting the Wizard that something can be done in order to reverse the regression of not only her professor but all the animals who have become mere beasts, and the discrimination rising against them. She comes to learn that the man she had put all her hopes on, the man she idolized, was the one actively responsible for the abuse and caging of the animals, including her dear friend.

In shock and anger, she turns away from the Wizard and when she runs, she is labeled “Wicked” by him and his government as an enemy of the state. In that moment plays the song which has come to represent the play, “Gravity”, where Elphaba declares “If anyone cares to find me, look to the western skies! As someone told me lately, everyone deserves a chance to fly! And nobody in all of Oz, no Wizard that there is or was, is ever going to bring me down!” It is her moment of self realization, and her understanding that in truth, while the Wizard had no magic and no miracles of his own, she had a rare and undeniable power within herself her entire life and now she was going to act on it.

Several weeks ago, I was listening to “Gravity” on the way home from class. The song had always resonated with me, and I was never entirely sure as to why. But as I was listening to it, and dwelling on a conversation my wife and I had earlier in the day, it hit me.

I was Elphaba. And I was still trying to prove to myself and those rejecting and disapproving authorities in my life that I wasn’t “Wicked.”

Like the Wicked Witch of the West, I too was born different. I was born with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. At the time in the late seventies, eighties, and early nineties no one, however, recognized my behavior and presentations as being autistic because the only version of autism which was recognized by the American psychiatric community (until 1994) at the time was classical, hand flapping, non-verbal autism. On top of this, my parents went through a divorce in the early eighties and I grew up without any kind of a stable father figure.

With my resulting behaviors, I was quickly labeled “the bad kid” for most of my childhood, and somewhat into my college years. No one knew what to do with me, or how to “control” me. I could not relate normally to virtually anyone, and in my frustrations I would often lash out violently towards either other kids or adults. Thing is, I didn’t want to be that way, especially as I came to understand that I was different as I grew older. I didn’t want to be the bad kid, but everything I did to try and be “normal” and “social” kept backfiring on me. I still remember when one after school daycare worker, after my mother had come to pick me up, responded to her “who would want him?”

This led to a period in late junior high and early high school where I was most at peace when I was at home by myself without having to deal with anyone else. I was absorbed into my own fantasy worlds where I felt “safe” without having to deal with the condemnation and rejection of other people.

But starting in High School, after God and I came to an understanding of our mutual relationship, I began to try to do everything “right.” I went to church every time the doors were opened, I started paying attention to, and passing my classes. I wanted to go into the full time ministry as either a pastor or a missionary.

I realized that night as I was driving home in my van, that a huge, subconscious motivator for most of my adult life had been trying to prove that I wasn’t “the bad kid” anymore. But no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I tried to “toe the line” with my church, and later with the schools I attended, somehow I always ran afoul of those authorities in my life from whom I was seeking approval. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop being “Wicked” in their eyes.

I continued to seek after truth. Perhaps this is what got me into trouble the most. Being autistic, I didn’t want to be wrong or on the wrong side. So I continued to study, and when I was painfully rejected by one group, I subconsciously sought acceptance by another. I kept studying and studying and studying. And with whichever group I fell under, I rigorously sought to defend and uphold their doctrines and policies, even if they caused pain to either myself or someone I loved. I was trying desperately to not be “Wicked.”

But none of it made any difference to whether or not those people I had sought approval from gave it. They did not, but instead kept themselves and their approval apart from me as though I was a project that still needed guidance at best.

I realized in the van that night that this subconscious need to be legitimized by some “gatekeeper”, by some father figure perhaps, was what was keeping me from reaching the “Gravity” moment without guilt. And every time I share my conclusions from my studies and reflections, when they differ from the various “party lines” I had been taught to keep to, somewhere in the back of my mind are the voices of those men whose approval and affection I sought shouting at me, as with Elphaba, “Wicked!”

And I still don’t want to be.

The truth is that I’m not entirely sure where to go from here into the rest of my life. I think it a good thing that I have come to recognize this within myself, but what the fruit of it will be I don’t know. I suppose only time will tell. I only write this now, because I believe that there are others out there like myself who have someone screaming at them “Wicked!” in the backs of their minds. It often demands that we give one of two responses. We either fall in line with the disapproving voices, or we rebel wholeheartedly against them, as Elphaba did. I’m not sure that either is really the appropriate choice.

I think maybe a third option exists. Maybe we reject the “Wicked” label, but instead of being in open rebellion we see the ignorance, arrogance, and pride of the people behind those voices for what it is. To see that, in reality, the hold they still have over us only really exists within our own minds. And like the elephant tied to the stake in the ground by a mere rope, learn that we too can leave our bondage any time we wish.

I am one with the Force...

I recently saw a meme on Facebook which had a picture of a wand from Harry Potter and a lightsaber from Star Wars and asked “Which one would you choose?” This got me thinking, because just a few posts above it had been a picture of a scene from the latest Star Wars movie, Rogue One, involving probably my favorite character from the film.

I saw Star Wars: Rogue One the Monday after it came out. I’ve been a Star Wars fan since the original came out a couple of years after I was born, and my going to see its new, immediate prequel was inevitable. I really enjoyed this one, and the depth it brought to the story and the universe in which it takes place.

In it was a character called Chirrut Imwe, played well by Donnie Yen, a martial arts master and choreographer. We learn that Chirrut is a monk and a former guard of the Jedi temple on the planet Jedha, the source of Khyber crystals which are used to power the lightsaber weapons. He is also blind. It is made clear in the story, that neither Chirrut, nor his friend and constant companion Baze Malbus (who although also a former guard and monk has lost his his faith in the Force), are Jedi themselves. Neither appear to be able to make use of the Force in the supernatural ways that we have become accustomed to seeing in previous Star Wars stories. In spite of this, Chirrut has a deep faith in and understanding of the Force, and is easily the most spiritually attuned character in the entire Star Wars universe that we meet, with the possible exception of Jedi Master Yoda.

Throughout the movie, Chirrut’s constant meditation is, “I am one with the Force, the Force is with me.” We hear him chant it as a prayer over and over again, whether he is sitting at rest, or using his staff against stormtroopers. But what is more than this, in spite of his lack of Force talent, we begin to understand that it is not an empty mantra for him, but the foundation of his thinking and beliefs.

In his final scene in the movie, by his faith in the Force alone, he walks blind through heavy blaster fire towards a communications control panel that he can neither see nor yet feel nor hear, all the while chanting, “I am one with the Force, the Force is with me.” Through his act of absolute trust in the object of his faith, he is able, though physically blind, to locate a switch on the panel and make it possible for his team’s task to be completed.

It is shortly after that he is hit and succumbs to the blaster fire, and his companion Baze, who had lost his faith in the Force, rushes to try and rescue him. And as he lay dying in his arms, we hear him chant again, “I am one with the Force, the Force is with me.” And then he tells his friend, he is returning to the Force, and that just as the Force is everywhere, so he will be everywhere because he is one with the Force. In his final moments, the flame of Chirrut’s unwavering faith burns the brightest, and reignites the extinguished flame of Baze’s own faith, who then begins his own prayer and carries on their task, “The Force is with me, and I am one with the Force.”

The prayer and steadfast faith of Chirrut Imwe in the Force was more powerful than any of the skills or lightsabers of the Jedi in the series, and through it he brought about the redemption of his “lost” friend. I think if I was to choose, it would be neither lightsaber nor wand, but I would choose Chirrut’s faith as the most powerful and effective weapon.

As I have reflected on his mantra more, it keeps leading me back to a fundamental truth of the Christian faith. That through our baptism into His death and resurrection, we are one with Christ and He is always with us. The whole purpose of the Christian faith and practice is union with God through following Jesus Christ and remaining in Him, and yet this really isn’t emphasized or taught in favor of minor points of theology or morality which people shout loudly about but don’t really understand themselves. Like Baze, when things happen that tear down the world around them, they lose their faith because they didn’t understand the foundation of it to begin with.

Chirrut Imwe understood the foundation of his faith. His remaining steadfast in the Force saw him through the loss of all he knew, and gave him the strength and will to continue on because, in spite of his blindness, he saw deeply into the truth of things and knew that no matter what, the Force would always be there, and so would he through his union with it. In the same way for the Christian, we must look deeply into the foundational truth of our practice and come to understand that Christ is always there, and through our union with Him so will we be. When we remain in Him, we see our connection to Him and His life spreads through us like sap through a branch.

In closing, I submit a reworking of Chirrut Imwe’s prayer with a few lines from St. Patrick’s Lorica, something that we too can use to re-center ourselves in the truth of our faith in Jesus Christ:

I am one with Christ,

Christ is with me.

Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me.

I am one with Christ,

Christ is with me.

Amen.