Luke Returns to Life as One with the Force

All that I have learned in my line of work is this:  Wisdom is eternal, truths are unchanging, and yet they find their eternal expression in temporal ways that can only be perceived by the limitations of mere humans.

Throughout my life, all stages, I had looked to Luke for a way to understand some family dynamics and other personal concerns as well.  But then recently, I met this grizzled old-timer on a harsh island that threw something besides salt over his shoulder.  He threw out the legacy of the past, the weight of which was crushing.  Now what do I do?!  On the heels of major family upheaval both in my own home and in that of my close family members, what do we do now?  Look to the eternal, look to what is inherently good, while participating as well as we can, acting out of profound lessons borne of anguish and effort.  How will Luke be judged in his eremitic state?  For me, as with the entire movie (and saga), I am challenged, called beyond my myopic vision, disabused of prejudice.  His actions are more highly evolved than I have even had a chance to give words to.

Go See This: Baptism in The Last Jedi

This is a very enthusiastic recommendation.

Monthly Blogger Ryder Waldron, over at the ever venerable Coffee With Kenobi, posted this excellent piece today.  Did you ever think about all of the water and fire imagery in Star Wars?  How it purifies, refines, and gives purpose to the heroes and villians?  Let Ryder illuminate it all for you in his excellent piece, Baptism in The Last Jedi.

We’ll Just Use the Force of Music: Review of How the Force Works

When I was a kid, I always went to sleep with the radio on.  Back then, it was the smooth sounds of an 80s synthesizer.  And today, quite often playing in the soundtrack of my routine, are the themes and motifs of Star Wars cinematic scores, of course.  When we were leaving The Force Awakens, I was absentmindedly humming Rey’s Theme, because it seemed unique and grabbed my attention.  And I am not educated in music at all. 

We are now blessed with Full of Sith's How the Force Works - Episodes I-III.  This highly recommended podcast miniseries, which breaks down the music of Star Wars: The Last Jedi is astonishingly powerful.  To come to a deeper understanding of the music, for several years we were treated to the likes of Rebel Force Radio's Star Wars Oxygen: The Music of John Williams.  And now, with the arrival of this new and wonderful miniseries of podcasts, the music of the great maestro and The Last Jedi is brought to life. 

The Cave of Wonders and Rebirth

This article was originally published at www.coffeewithkenobi.com 

There is nothing you know that can’t be known.  Eternity has invaded and fulfilled creation with its fullness.  Everything we learn is only that which has been passed on from some masters who found intimate and profound connection to the source of knowledge.  And this lesson is at the core of what Master Yoda has been trying to pass on to us younglings and padawans since 1980 or so.  Never stop educating yourself.  Never stop going to the source of goodness and growth and finding the lessons found in that long sought after place, for they are the beginning of eternal life.

Forgiving Anakin, Giving Thanks with Luke

This article was originally published at www.coffeewithkenobi.com 

Dear readers, I am preparing for quite a funk this coming holiday season.  My life is turned upside down.  Things are changing, and this is inevitable.  Changes have been coming for a while, but we all know that the holiday season can be taxing in such a situation.  And I want you to know that I am trying to remain thankful and hopeful.  Trying.  Will I succeed?  I’ll let you know in January.  Thanksgiving is the kickoff to the holiday season, and I intend to maintain and meditate on the hope that is imbued in the reason for the civic holiday.  I have blogged about hope many times.  I firmly believe everything that I have written for this grand community.  And the opposite of hope is despair.  This is a paradigm that has been central to my life for its entirety.  Let’s look at each in turn and see where that gets us. Read More

One Life Saved, the World Entire Saved: Schindler’s List & the Passing of a Survivor of WWII

This Article was originally published at www.thebeardedtrio.com

All of us who find or search for this page have something in common: a love of great movies, the joy they bring us and an admiration for the people who have brought amazing ideas to life.  I am a Star Wars enthusiast, and will watch anything by Spielberg when it is available.  Goonies, ET, everything Indy, everything Marty.  All of these fantasies fueled the emerging hopes of my childhood.

The fanciful and wonderful movies of my youth that led me to look for the great mysteries of this world.  And then I found a great mystery confronting my sensibilities, my stomach and my own relationship to the world around me.  When I was 18, I came across Schindler’s List.  It was only three weeks after my grandmother died, the matriarch of the family.  I often refer to her as St Granny because of the place her love has had in my life – even after her repose in the Lord.  I don’t remember the occasion, but a lot of the family was gathered together and watched the movie, which was aired without commercial interruption.  Drama of this sort was not something we generally did as a family.  We were into comedies, stand-up comedians, and family stories.  This was a special evening.  Read More

Life and Death of a Simple Leaf

I just watched a single leaf fall from a tree outside.  It is autumn, we saw temperatures in the 30s last night, it was beautifully brisk.  That leaf has done its job since late spring.  The bud showed itself sometime as the last icy patches were receding.  The yearly tiny glaciers that give rise to a new short age.  The shoot pushed out of the branch, arcing toward the sunshine, toward the source of the light.  Soon after Pascha, the full young leaf revealed its inherent splendor. Still smaller than its potential. I have heard in many nature documentaries that the deer love young leaves the most.  So being young was risky, but necessary.  As we all tumbled through the end of the school year, or to the early days of outdoor life reawakened, that leaf reached its full stature.  Broad, green, its lines placed there by the finger of God Himself.  We didn’t notice.  That leaf became one of thousands on one tree in a stand of thousands of trees in a town that is more green than anything else. It offered shade to the world below, it fed us the air we breathe.  It worked in concert with its elevated neighbors in a fragile yet powerful system.  The canopy above us, that is the sky, is unreachable by our tiny selves.  So the Lord put the canopy a little lower so that we might know that His loving care is also reachable, and condescends to meet us and provide in our need.  The leaf was a part of that plan.