May The Force Be With You

I love Star Wars action figures.  I love the movies too, but my children would say I love the action figures more.  You would think this collection would be in one of their houses, but no. It is in mine. I have three boys. How does one divide up a collection like this? And when the youngest started pulling the heads off and interchanging them, it became sacrilegious and that settled it. It's MY collection. I mended all the misplaced heads and broken legs and protected them like they were my children.

These are quotes from Joseph Campbell's  The Power Of Myth (I put them here to justify my adoration of the characters):

"Certainly Star Wars has a valid mythological perspective. It shows the state as a machine and asks, 'Is the machine going to crush humanity or serve humanity?' Humanity comes not from the machine but from the heart. What I see in Star Wars is the same problem that Faust gives us: Mephistopheles, the machine man, can provide us with all the means, and is thus likely to determine the aims of life as well. But of course the characteristic of Faust, which makes him eligible to be saved, is that he seeks aims that are not those of the machine. Now, when Luke Skywalker unmasks his father, he is taking off the machine role that the father has played. The father was the uniform. That is power, the state role."

...you have to salute Luke Skywalker in Star Wars for that moment when he says, 'Turn off the computer and trust your feelings'....he's saying to turn off your machine and do it yourself, follow your feelings, trust your feelings. And when he did, he achieved success, and the audience broke out into applause...It is in a language that talks to young people, and that's what counts. It asks, Are you going to be a person of heart and humanity - because that's where the life is, from the heart - or are you going to do whatever seems to be required of you by what might be called 'intentional power?' When Ben Kenobi says, 'May the Force be with you,' he's speaking of the power and energy of life, not of programmed political intentions...Ben Kenobi says, 'The Force is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.' The force of the Empire is based on an intention to overcome and master. Star Wars is not a simple morality play, it has to do with the powers of life as they are either fulfilled or broken and suppressed through the action of man."

(the interviews between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers which became the book, took place in 1985 and 1986 at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch)