The Force is Strong in My Family
I saw that shirt at Disneyland and flipped out!
My sister said to me, “Oh! You need that shirt for um...family history purposes!”
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been in theaters for nearly a month now which, by internet standards, means it is now okay to discuss spoilers. But don’t worry- I won’t be giving away anything big.
Watching the new Star Wars movie brings up some great questions which can spin into fun debates. As viewers and fans look at the new cast, it poses interesting questions of: how much are they like their parents? Can we guess who a character’s parents are by just observing them?
When Kylo Ren revealed his lineage there was an audible gasp in the theater. But for Rey we don’t get any solid answers, however, people who have read the Star Wars books are firm in their theories.
One theory is that Rey is the daughter of Luke Skywalker. What is interesting about this theory is that she has little to no memory of her family, only that she was positive they would come back for her on Jakku. But Rey is smart, like crazy smart. The way she fixes and flies the Millennium Falcon? Amazing! The way she uses the Force with only a little bit of coaching from ambiguous Yoda and Obi-Wan voice overs? Incredible! This is the girl who has inherited traits and abilities that she doesn’t know anything about.
Star Wars is a gorgeous amalgamation of Medieval sentiments, ninja elements, and a whole lot of science fiction. In Medieval times (500-1500CE) there was an idea/theory that by the best and brightest people marrying and having children with other people that were the best and brightest (aka royals) that the perfect ruler could be created.
Rey is a strong example of that theory. She encompasses pieces of all the people who came before her.
She is hard working, and puts others before herself like Shmi.
She is in tune with the Force in incredible ways like Anakin.
She is sassy like Padme. (And Padme could seriously use a blaster- something else Rey inherited.)
Her outlook and attitude mirror Luke’s. Her desire to stay on Jakku for family, and yet a hope to leave...very reminiscent of Luke’s purgatory on Tattooine.
If we’re following the books then her mother would have been Mara Jade- the best Sith-turned-Jedi of her age.
All of these traits built up in one person make her all that she is, but she still had (or is yet to) embrace them.
So, the question is- what about us? What are we a mix of? What have we inherited (like Rey), and what do we reject (like Kylo Ren)?
I had a teacher in college that was an incredible example of accepting all the mix that we are. His classes was a basic world history class. It was a lecture hall, and only a 200 level.
Nothing fancy.
When I registered for the class I noticed his last name was distinctly Irish. I don’t want to give away too personal of details but I’ll use the example of O’Mally, or O’Reily. To me it was something blatantly Irish.
That was my first mistake.
When I arrived to class I was surprised to see a man who was obviously Middle Eastern (he was from Lebanon). Part of his introduction to the class was to explain his lineage. I guess I wasn’t the only one that was surprised.
This teacher had a father with an Irish surname who was from Lebanon but his grandfather had been Irish and immigrated to New York. My teacher told us about his family history (in intense depth) and told us about all the peoples, and countries his family had come from.
He was proud of his history, and embraced all of it.
Throughout the quarter he celebrated several different holidays that we don’t have here in the United States and wore t-shirts in several different languages. This was a man who knew where his family had come from and loved it all.
In my experience when people are asked where they come from, the usually answer with “America” or “Mexico.” I guarantee you that there is more to your story.
We might not all come from Jedi-stock we all do have a lineage and a history that is rich, complex, mixed, and exciting.
My challenge to you is to look through your family tree and write down all the different places that your family had come from. Even if your family has been in Russia, or Germany, or Ireland for many, many years each of those countries has a beautiful heritage that started someplace else.
Happy Hunting!
