I am proud to be a Star Wars geek. I watched all of the episodes, although I do have a special place in my heart for the first three released in the later 70’s-early 80’s. The first movie entitled Episode IV  A New Hope, was released in 1977 which was the year I graduated from high school. I actually heard the soundtrack before I watched the film. I had been visiting my friend Joan Wesley in NY and her brother had the music on tape. Having been fascinated with sci-fi as a kid (I really DO believe I was an alien baby left on my parents’ doorstep.) I loved the hero’s journey it offered and I was swept into the tale. I imagined myself a Jedi Knight and was fascinated with the Force. Years later, as a Reiki Master (still a Jedi in training at this point in my life), I describe Reiki as the ‘life force energy that permeates everything.’  Sometimes I use Jedi mind tricks; watch out.

Tonight on the way home from my job as an addictions counselor, I was listening to Kids Corner on WXPN and they were playing Weird Al Yankovich parodying one of the more recent films in the Star Wars franchise. The song was called The Saga Begins and it sets the stage for young Anakin Skywalker to morph into Darth Vader. I was boisterously singing along and shortly afterward pulled into the parking lot of a local supermarket to pick up a few things. As I was walking in, from the other door dances in a boy of around 8 or 9, accompanied by his smiling mother. He was garbed in, of all things, a Yoda t-shirt, with the words Jedi Master emblazoned on it, and wearing a headpiece of what at first looked like ram’s horns. When I asked, his mom informed me that they were Princess Leia’s hair rolls (remember them?). Shorts and flip-flops and a plastic rain poncho completed the outfit. Amazed but not surprised, I told them about the song that I had heard moments earlier. I complimented him on his fashion taste.

What gave me such a chuckle, besides the rapidity at which I had manifested a Star Wars connection; the Force is indeed a powerful energy, was how accepting his mother was of her son’s get up. She thanked me for being willing to engage with him in our shared interest. I wish more parents were as supportive of their child’s out of the box thinking, rather than attempting to have them fit a particular mold. Perhaps, as a result, this young man will become a Padawan (Jedi knight initiate in the first stages of training/apprenticeship) and be right up there with my favorite little green sage whose image and likeness decorated his t-shirt.

May the Force be with you.

The Saga Begins-Weird Al Yankovich