Next Level Art
My mom loved Star Wars most for its creativity and imagery. She loved the creatures, the planets, the costumes, the spaceships, and the logos. She loved that there was space in the universe for tiny creatures, huge creatures, hairy creatures and droids. A huge fan of playing dress-up, Star Wars meant you could turn your princess wand into a light-saber and being the good guy or bad guy did not depend on your costume, but rather which scene you were role-playing. She loved going to watch each movie for the first time on the big screen and welcomed each new character, even the ones that devout fans criticized.
Rebel 4 Life
My mom loved a good underdog story. She strongly identified with Leia and the Rebel Alliance. She was scrappy and resourceful, never too flashy and had a rough crew from different backgrounds to laugh and plan the future with. She had no problem fighting injustice and standing up for others. To us kids she was most certainly our esteemed leader. Like Leia, she counseled and supported while letting us make our own decisions and mistakes. Never losing faith in us. She was absolutely ready for a revolution and a restoration to democracy.
Don was her Han Solo
Han Solo, and most Harrison Ford characters of the 80s like Indiana Jones, is my dad. He is the more obvious rebel and smarter than everyone else in the galaxy. He survives on work ethic and being a nonconformist. He takes risks, gets hurt often but somehow survives to live another day. He needs little of the material world and finds honor in fixing his own things, buying things in cash and sticking it to the man. He would prefer to live on the edge of society but his love pulled him into a world of family life and exposed him to the Force, which he is still skeptical of.
A Family Saga
To my mom, Star Wars was about family. The original episodes on VHS were the background of her years as a young mom. We weren’t allowed to watch Transformers but we could watch Star Wars over and over again. When the newer episodes came out she joined us in the long lines, got dressed up and stayed up late for the midnight screenings. She let my brothers skip school to wait in line for Episodes 1 & 2. She never watched a new movie without Patrick. She collected Star Wars everything and mailed May the 4th boxes to her favorite little people. Loving her family was the ultimate resistance to the Dark Side. The Rise of Skywalker was the last movie my mom watched just a few weeks before she died. She called me after to tell me how hard she cried. She knew then, that the Saga was over for her.
- Pick up a stick today and have a light-saber dual.
- Get out your Star Wars Legos and figures.
- Talk like Yoda.
- Watch your least and most favorite movie.
- Let your kids know about the Dark Side, international diplomacy, forming alliances, and defending all creatures in the galaxy.
- Free prisoners, use technology for good, and pass on knowledge to the next generation.
“Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it, you’ll never make it through the night.” – Leia Organa
Be Like Barb 