Star Wars Obsessed

Image via Wikipedia

My five year old son has a problem.  He has  a serious Star Wars addiction.  Now in the interest of full disclosure, I have a great love for Star Wars myself.  I love watching him enjoy the movies and the games.  I love listening to him talk about the virtues of using a lightsaber over a blaster.  I even love the repetitive statements declaring how awesome the Jedi are.  Its a blast sharing this thing with my son.  It gives us this cool thing that we share in common that serves to build and the father son bonds of affection.  Admittedly, I am grateful to have something in my life like this with my son.

I remember when I was a kid I was really into baseball cards for awhile.  I collected any card I could get my hands on.  Eventually my dad took notice and it became a hobby that we shared.  While sometimes I wondered if it wasn’t his hobby more than mine, I still took comfort in the fact that my dad wanted to do something with me.  He loved me and wanted to connect with me.  I still cherish those times together when we would get a pack of cards and open them with anxious anticipation hoping there would be a rare find in the pack. Most of the time there wasn’t anything special in the pack…it was the time together that meant the most.  I am glad that I have that with my son.

Thanks George Lucas.  Honestly, I never thought I would utter that sentence after seeing the prequels, but it seems appropriate now.  Thanks for creating something both my son and I love.

 

For a Chuckle

Every once in a while I like to put up something that makes me chuckle.  As both a John Williams fan and a Star Wars fan, I enjoyed this a lot.  Thanks for showing it to me Roy.

Father and son time…

My son Colm and I have spent the better part of the week working our way through the original Star Wars trilogy.  To this point, we have made it through episodes 4 and 5 and if I can find the DVD will make it through Return of the Jedi by the end of the weekend.  I have to admit I am a proud father.  It does not get much cooler than getting to share in his excitement as he experiences these movies as I did when I was kid.  So far, my favorite observation of his…I guess maybe its more of question…is why did they freeze Han Solo in Chocolate.  Admittedly I laughed out loud, but I also began to think about how I could possibly explain the difference between carbonite and chocolate.  In his world, he has no experience with carbonite, but he knows exactly what chocolate is.  After a few failed explanations, I finally gave up and let him continue to think Han Solo is is being transported to Jabba the Hut in frozen chocolate because carbonite makes no sense to him until I can find a way to explain it to him in a way that he will understand.

As I continued to ponder this, I began to wonder if God has the same problem with us.  There is so much in life that we just can’t wrap our minds around and I think its because our frame of reference is so much smaller than God’s.  Its question of the infinite (God) verses the finite (us).  we do our best with what we have been given but the mystery is beyond us.  I know for a lot of people that is an unsettling proposition, but for me it is a comfort.  I don’t want to serve a God that i fully understand.  I want Him to know infinitely more than me and I want Him to be infinitely more wise than me.   I am content to live in the mystery.  That doesn’t mean i don’t get frustrated, but it does means that ultimately I trust that God knows better than me and that one day I will understand as I hope one day Colm will know the difference between chocolate and carbonite.  Until then…I gotta find Return of the Jedi.