All I Really Need to Know I Learned from "Star Wars"

At the UUCiA on December 13, 2015

NOTE: This post is a slightly adapted excerpt from my December 13, 2015 Sermon, "All I Really Need to Know about Theology I Learned from 'Star Wars'". You can listen to the full sermon here. The picture to the left is from the "story for all ages" skit that we did that Sunday. I am in the Darth Vader costume.

I was just a kid when the original Star Wars movie came out. I was 8 ½-years-old, to be precise. It was my oldest sibling – who was a senior in high school at the time – who convinced our mom to take all of us kids to see it. Believe it or not, I was not enthusiastic, at all. First of all, my generation wasn’t as versed at sitting still in front of a screen; the prospect of sitting still for two hours wasn’t that appealing. The other reason I wasn’t too psyched to go was that, frankly, I wasn’t too wild about my sister’s taste in TV and movies. Her idea of good TV was Lost in Space and My Favorite Martian. I couldn’t imagine sitting through two hours of either of those. But I did tag along reluctantly with my mother and siblings to see Star Wars not long after it was released.

I sat down, daydreaming during the previews about being outside playing baseball. Then, after the previews were over, these words appeared on the screen: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” Then the amazing, majestic music of the Star Wars Main Theme! Then, against a backdrop of mostly empty space, words started to scroll from the bottom of the screen to the top, making it look like they were floating off into the great beyond. And darned if they didn’t pull me right along with them like a tractor beam. I was hooked – a little kid, hooked! – by orchestral music and written words. If that isn’t an amazing achievement in cinema, I don’t know what is.

I have seen the original Star Wars movie so many times that I lost count back in, oh, 1978. I know that I saw it in the theaters at least 30 times. My older brother and I would regularly save up our weekly allowance to see it again and again (movies were cheaper then, even adjusted for inflation). More often than not we’d walk down and across the highway to get to the theater – free range kids, and no one called the police!

The special effects in the original Star Wars trilogy were astounding. Whereas the Star Trek Enterprise was so obviously a model that I kind of giggled at it even as a kid, the Star Wars spacecraft were pretty spectacularly convincing. But it wasn’t the special effects that kept me coming back. I kept coming back for what might as well have been, for an 8 ½-year-old, the Greatest Story Ever Told.

I was raised as a humanistic Unitarian Universalist kid by atheist parents, and to be completely honest, I think Star Wars filled some void I was feeling. Yes, I learned the most famous biblical stories in my UU “Sunday School” (as we called it then). But they felt like someone else’s stories to me, at the time. Star Wars felt like my story… my grand tale of fighting the good fight not because you necessarily expect to win, but because it is the right thing to do. And don’t forget magic. I do believe in intellectual integrity and love that aspect of Unitarian Universalism. But there is something – dare I say it? – good for the soul about suspending your disbelief occasionally, even if just for two hours in the dark theater, and feeling connected to things beyond your immediate world and understanding. So I do think that was the deeper appeal for me. The Force. Mystery. Magic. The triumph of good over evil.

In fact, with apologies to Robert Fulghum, all I really need to know I learned from Star Wars. Among other things, I learned:

Do, or do not, there is no try.

Judge by one’s size, do not.

Patience you must have.

Don’t blast the controls before jumping into a trash compactor.

Beware the Dark Side.

Let go of your hate.

Stay on target.

Let the Wookie win.

In the words of Fulghum, “Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.”

There’s even wisdom for the United States of America as the year 2015 comes to a close. In The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda says, “Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” We would do well to heed these words today. Fear to anger to hate to suffering. This is not the path we want to follow. I also watch the news lately and sometimes think of the words of Senator Naboo in Revenge of the Sith, the final prequel movie, as the Republic is being taken over by dark forces, becoming the Galactic Empire. She says, “So this is how liberty dies – by thunderous applause”. The Dark Side, giving in to fear and base impulses, sometimes seems easier than the Light Side with all of its ambiguities and sometimes thankless work. And when charismatic leaders are promoting fear… anger… hate… we are in danger of letting the dark forces take over, to thunderous applause. It is up to us. Be a Jedi for justice! Don’t give in to hate. Don’t give in to fear. As Yoda said, “luminous beings are we”. May we let our light shine in these times. May the Force be with us. 

Flying Our Colors: Black Lives Matter Flag at the UUCiA

On Sunday, November 29, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Andover put up our Black Lives Matter flag in a brief ceremony during worship. It now flies alongside our rainbow flag. 

 

Today's Andover Townsman has an article on this. You can read that article: Local congregation displays "Black Lives Matter" flag.

I am happy that we are “flying our colors”. May our true colors shine as vibrantly. May we be worthy of our flags, showing our solidarity in ways that transcend this symbolic gesture.

May it be so.

UUCiA endorses Citizens for Farm Animal Protection ballot measure

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Andover became the first religious congregation to endorse the Massachusetts-based Citizens for Farm Animal Protection ballot measure on November 12. Citizens for Farm Animal Protection is a grassroots campaign that has put together a coalition in the Commonwealth that is working to end the cruel confinement of farm animals in cages so small the animals are virtually unable to move. The grassroots campaign has been gathering signatures for a ballot measure that voters would consider in November 2016.

We collected signatures at the congregation after worship services twice this fall. Most of our Sunday worship attenders signed the petition without hesitation, and I didn’t hear anyone speaking against it. On November 12, our Board voted to endorse the measure.

Says Richard Hudak, President of the UUCiA, “The modest protections proposed here are of broad appeal, and of general interest to people wishing to remain humane and healthy. It’s completely in line with our Unitarian Universalist values.”

“Chickens, pigs and cows locked in cages on factory farms need us to be their voice,” says Stephanie Harris, Campaign Director of the Massachusetts-based Citizens for Farm Animal Protection. “Members of UUCiA should feel proud of their public stance in support of this important animal protection ballot measure.”  

We are people of faith. Let's act like it!

This is my first post since the tragedies in Paris, Beirut, and Baghdad. It has been a hard, sad week on many levels. The atrocities committed by the terrorists are truly heart-breaking. Terrorists are lost souls, in my view, who are driven to commit evil acts in their state of despair. The acts are indeed evil and despicable. I find it helpful to think about what could possibly drive human beings to commit such heinous acts. This article ("Nobody Is Born a Terrorist", pointed out to me by a congregant) is a decent place to start thinking about it: link.

But aside from the terrorism, I have been saddened this week by the response of many Americans. The Xenophobia and Islamophobia in response to the tragedies has been sad indeed. Fear never brings out our best selves. It is sad that many are trying to use the terror acts as reason to turn away Syrian refugees who are in desperate need. Have we forgotten that they are trying to escape violence and evil themselves? It is sad that many are driven by fear to consider the kinds of positively anti-American responses that led the USA to send innocent Japanese people (including US citizens) to internment camps during World War II. (No -- I haven't literally heard anyone suggesting internment camps yet, but some of the possible "solutions" hint in that direction.) Many Americans are people of faith; many consider themselves to be good Christians. Well... it's time to start acting like it!

Here are some memes that I saw on social media this week that I did appreciate. Considering the life and ways of Jesus always helps to give me clarity on social justice issues, and these times call on those of us who value his teachings to live them.