LETTERS FROM HOME: A LONG TIME AGO ONCE AGAIN ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE GALAXY

May 13, 1999

Dear Pat,

Reading of your cross-country trip to the Star Wars convention in Denver and hearing a man on "All Things Considered" say Star Wars was his religion growing up reminded me of a Pulitzer Prize winner's comment at a workshop.

"I hate Ewoks," he said.

But the guy loves Star Wars, and spoke of the characters as if they are alive. For him and millions of people, they are.

George Lucas created an alien world recognizably like our own, populated with ruffians and sages and princesses, heroes and heroines and those who would rather do evil. Their wars are intergalactic but fought for the same reasons ours are: more power, more control.

And what is the difference between "May the Force be with you" and "May God be with you?"

And now "Phantom Menace" is with us, from the place mats at Pizza Hut to the special table at Barnes and Noble. Lucas alone could bank $400 million from his newest tale of "a long time ago."

NOTE: italicize "the" in next sentence

It has been said film is the 20th century art form, unifying all that has come before. In a way, Lucas has consolidated all kinds of films, combining cliffhanger serials, cartoons, the hero's journey and epic drama into a tale certainly for this time if not for the ages. But I think what makes Star Wars special is the existence of the mysterious "character" known as the Force.

Aside from Biblical movies, how many others can you think of in which something akin to a concept of God has a prominent role? Most movies pretend that evil can be overcome by muscles like Arnold Scwartzenegger's or by sleuths whose intelligence prevails. It is our own dark sides that must be overcome, and that can only happen if we face up to them.

Like our dreams, the best movies are set in the ambiguous land that lies between good and evil -- where most of us live.

Star Wars recognizes a truth both reassuring and unsettling: That the God force that exists in us all can be used for good or evil. We get to decide.

Jedi knights and Darth Vader both drink from the same stream.

Evil is our own doing.

I wonder how many boys and girls have been comforted to think of God not as the vengeful judge or even the kindly old man depicted in paintings but as a force within them that will respond when called upon. When the Force is strong in them, much the better. If Star Wars has been some people's religion it hasn't been a bad one.

In a hot tub one night in Big Sur, the Pacific Ocean below inexorably pounding monoliths into sand, the discussion turned to proving the existence of God. Gosh, I thought we'd taken care of this in the student union at college. Intelligent, logical arguments insisted no such proof exists. My brain sputtered.

I simply lay back in the warmth and drank in the light from the 10 billion trillion stars in the known universe.

If you hope to ascertain God with logic you will not.

Over and over, Obi-Wan Kenobi instructs Luke Skywalker to close his eyes and feel the Force within him. We do the same when we pray, when we meditate, when we turn off the part of ourselves that talks and listen to the part that knows. When we inhale deeply and just be, flooding our senses with the thousands of miracles that occur during every breath of our lives, we know the Force is with us.

Love, Sam