My son loves movies. I do not. Animated movies – movies made especially for
kids - are the hardest for me to sit through. I find most of them dreadfully
boring. There are, of course, exceptions (such as Frozen) but even the exceptions I can only watch two or three times
before they too get tedious and sleep arrives before the credits roll.
By this
time last year, as my son approached his fifth birthday, I had reached a point
where I just could not bring myself to watch another animated show. I just
couldn’t do it. One weekend, while we were visiting my parents, we stopped
into the library and my son asked if we could please get a movie to watch that
night. His grandparents, completely incapable of saying no, nodded their heads
and my son, smile on his lips and eyes aglow with excitement, scanned the
shelves in the children’s section. The thought of sitting through an animated
show was too much. I couldn’t do it. I needed to find a non-animated movie that
might appeal to him. A few weeks earlier I had suggested to my spouse that we
should introduce our son to Star Wars.
She thought he was still too young. But she wasn’t there at my parents’ house, so
I plucked the original A New Hope off
the shelves and handed it to my dad to check out.
“What’s
that?” My son asked, pointing to the movie now in Dad’s hands.
“Star Wars.”
“Ohhhhh!”
He complained. “But I want to watch these.”
“We can get
those too,” I compromised in an attempt to dodge a breakdown.
“Okay, but
we are watching these tonight.” My son insisted.
“No, Star Wars tonight, and tomorrow while
Grandpa and I are raking leaves you can watch those.”
Begrudgingly,
he agreed.
Later that night, as my son cuddled
on the couch with his grandparents, he was still not sold on the idea of
watching a big person movie. And then it started. I read, as dramatically as I
could, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” He sat up a little
straighter and for the next two hours he was completely transfixed. He absolutely
loved the movie and when I told him there were five more, his eyes opened wide
and he announced, “I have to watch them – all of them.”
And so we did – over and over and
over again – one every Saturday night for the next several months.
For Christmas, Santa brought him
light sabers and for weeks all he wanted to do was fight me or anyone else who
was willing to play. When we watched the movies, during the fight scenes, he
would turn on his light saber and pretending to be Luke, Obi Wan or Yoda he would
jump around the living room fighting the enemy - Darth Vader, Darth Maul or the
Emperor.
In church, during the kiss of
peace, my son started walking around, shaking hands and saying, “May the force
be with you.” Many people in the congregation played along, responding in kind.
By the time spring rolled around,
my son believed that he was a Jedi, but not just any Jedi. On the playground,
when kids asked him what his name was he would respond, “Obi Wan Kenobi.”
In May, he desperately needed a
hair cut but for days he refused to go. He never had an issue getting his haircut
in the past and we couldn’t understand what was wrong.
Finally I asked him, “Why won’t you let us cut your hair?”
He responded, “I want a padawan braid.”
He responded, “I want a padawan braid.”
I chuckled,
enthralled with his passionate desire to be a Jedi. “You can grow a padawan
braid and still get a haircut.”
“I can?”
His face was radiant with surprise.
“Yes, we’ll
just ask the barber to leave a patch in the back uncut.”
Considering
his obsession with Star Wars and his obstinate belief that he is a Jedi, no one
was surprised when he announced that he wanted to be young padawan Obi Wan
Kenobi for Halloween. My spouse made the costume from scratch and when he held
his toy light saber he looked as if he was on a serious Jedi mission to defeat
evil.
The night before Halloween, my son’s
school had a party for the students. When we arrived, my son saw one of his
friends dressed as Darth Vador. Since they couldn’t bring weapons of any kind –
even toys – to school, the two boys had a mock duel using glow bracelets. They whipped the bracelets around and jabbed
at each other, enjoying every moment of it.
The
following afternoon, while we were out trick-or-treating, evidence of the dark
side seemed to lurk down every street. Kids dressed as Storm Troopers marched
passed us quite frequently. At each
encounter, my son drew his light saber and pretended to fight them. Most of the
time the Troopers were oblivious to his attack, but my son defeated each of
them in his impassioned yet imaginary battle.
Halloween
may now be over, but my young Jedi refuses to relinquish his costume. This
morning he wore it to church, and in less than two months, when the new movie is
released, he intends on wearing the costume to the theater. He can’t wait – the
force is strong with him.