My Star Wars Confession

So call me strange, out of touch, sheltered or whatever you want, but up until about three weeks ago, I had never seen a single episode of Star Wars!  The primary reason I never watched a single episode of Star Wars was that I had no clue what it was about and from my perspective,  it looked weird and made absolutely not sense.  So when my fourteen year old son recently watched all of the episodes with his cousin, he borrowed his cousins DVD's and asked if I wanted to watch with him.  I did what every great father does and told him, "absolutely-NOT!"   After several days of his persistent pleading, I finally gave in and told him I would watch ONE of the movies.

Honestly, I only agreed just to let him know that I loved him enough to sit down with him to watch something I had no interest in at all. ( I figured it couldn't be worse than watching Titanic with my wife!)  He tried to explain the idea of how the episode was everything that happened at the end of all of the episodes, or something to that effect.  I was more confused at that point and almost told him to forget it!

To make a long story short, I started watching with him and lo and behold, it actually made a little bit of sense.  Of course after watching, I had to find out what happened in the next movie and of course the next as well!  Over the course of a few weeks, we ended up watching maybe five movies.  Sure enough, my complete and utter confusion had been transformed into a mild case of confusion!

Once we finished all of the episodes and Darth Vader met his demise, a thought hit me that became the main point of this blog.  As I mentioned before, the reason I never watched was because I didn't understand the point of Star Wars.  It made me think about how we have a tendency to avoid people or things that we do not understand.  We don't hang out with people of other races because we don't understand them.  We shout down those who vote differently instead of trying to understand why it is that they think and vote differently.  We refuse to worship with others because how they worship looks or seems foreign to us.  We don't try new foods because it looks weird compared to what we are used to.  On and on the vicious cycle of ignorance goes.  How many experiences have we missed out on because it is easier to avoid something than it is to embrace it and draw a conclusion following the experience?  How much more enriched would our life be if we took a little time to view things or individuals from another perspective?

The first episode of Star Wars came out in 1977.  I was six years old.  Almost 40 years later I finally have a better understanding of something I never had any desire to understand.  I let my guard down and tried something new and I find myself in a position where I am kind of anxious for the 2017 release of Episode VIII.  Make no mistake, I'm still a little confused, and I won't be waiting outside the theater in a Darth Vader suit for days before the premier, but I look forward to sitting down with my son again and watching the next episode-once it comes out at Redbox of course!

I hope you enjoyed reading!  Here another post I wrote in the past if you want a little bit more! Where is Your Happiest Place On Earth?