When Luke Skywalker flew his X-wing
Starfighter down the groove in the Death Star and hit the target right on, he
solved three problems plaguing humans from the beginning.
First, he destroyed a menace that
threatened the existence of humankind.
Second, he proved his mettle. We all
worry if we are up to the task—whatever that task might be. That day Luke
proved he could do it. He was a Jeti.
Third, he faced straight on the
problem of good vs. evil.
We are facing similar circumstances
right now, a dire threat, good vs. evil, and the question: are we up to the
task to fix it?
We’re scared, we’re worried, we’ve
never faced a menace like this: a world in lock-down, a pandemic of
unprecedented proportions, and now race issues.
We have had so much pressure exerted
on us something was bound to break. We didn’t know it would be about race. We
didn’t know we would watch a man be killed when he was already incapacitated
and on the ground.
Most everyone had watched the
movie Star Wars, either when it first erupted on the scene, or
if you are younger than that, a replay in the movie house or on TV. Remember
how we loved a seven-foot-tall hairy creature named Chewbacca. We went into a
bar where all sorts of characters mingled. There were ones with a proboscis,
multiple eyes, faces that looked like they had been in a blender—we accepted
all those, and NOW race is an issue?
In 1977 Good ole George Lucas coined
that phrase. “May the FORCE be with you.”
Now, in 2020 we need to KNOW THE
FORCE IS STRONG, ALIVE, AND LIVES IN US.
Remember Luke in the swamp trying to
lift a star-fighter from the bog? When he failed, Yoda told him, “Don’t
try, Do!”
We need the gumption to KNOW we can
overcome this current menace.
Why did YouTube censor dissonant
voices? Why are they telling us that a knight in shining armor will come riding
up on his white horse carrying, instead of a lance, a hypodermic needle? Worth
thinking about.
And, we’re savvy enough to know the
media likes trouble. They know that their mantra, “If it bleeds it leads,”
works. And we know people suck up bad news over good.
We can’t help it.
Have you ever sat on a hillside
looking across a small valley to the green grass and lovely bushes beyond? You
are peaceful, almost in a meditative state. Your eyelids are drooping. Suddenly
there is a movement in the grass. Your eyes dart to it. Oh, you say, "a bunny".
Maybe it was a mouse or even a tiny little cricket bug, but you saw the
movement.
We are on constant alert for danger.
Your dog too. He can spot a blade of grass moving out of sync while the others
are stand stark-still. Danger, danger.
We notice movement, don’t trust
strangers, we fear anyone who looks different from us.
Why do you think Zebras and deer and
antelope all look alike? Nobody wants to stand out from the crowd, for then the
predator will spot them, and they will be lunch. A sick animal will even hide
its pain. He doesn’t want to be seen as weak and, therefore, vulnerable. They,
like us, want to survive.
But we are Jedis in training. There
used to be a spectacle at Disneyland where children, little ones, could don a
cloak and with a Light-saber battle Darth Vader. This Darth Vader looked like
the one in the movie, huge, strode with a gate that told the world he was
top-dog. And that voice of his could quake the faint-of-heart. Yet, those
little kids, some, as young as four-years-old–those little Jedi’s in training
would single-handed march up to this big evil menace and with their Light-saber,
do battle with the dark side.
Know this: As the light (us, the
ones who search of a brighter day, the ones who champion justice and equality)
gets brighter, the darkness, fearing its demise, will up the ante.
As the characters in Star Wars had
to continually fight the dark side, either internally or externally, we must
also put our faces to the light, and KNOW that the Force that lives in us wants
goodness for us.
Don’t let the dark side seduce you
with promises that you don’t have to do anything except follow
directions. You do have to do something.
First,
we need the confidence to know we
can.
“When
we know better, we do better.”—Maya Angelou