Here's what I love about Star Wars, particularly in its most recent iteration.
In Star Wars, there's no internet.
In Star Wars, one can lose one's mind, and get it back again, and be someone who matters and makes a difference.
In Star Wars, it's okay to be a woman.
In Star Wars, nobody uses translators--have you noticed? Everyone speaks his or her or its own language, and everyone else understands. And if you don't understand, then that's your problem.
In Star Wars, people fighting for Good work together, and they give everything they have, knowing that they may never find out whether it all worked out, or whether other people would hold up their end. People do 'what they can with what they have, where they are.' They do their little piece as best as they can. As Jyn put it: "If we make it to the ground, we'll take the next chance, and the next--on and on until we win, or the chances are spent."
Well I went to Lafayette (no crawfish boils this time, but plenty of fried catfish and etoufee) and had no internet for nearly a week, and came home and had a birthday party (lots of books and aioli and pound cake... all separately consumed) and haven't felt like writing but now I really absolutely must, because Sara sent me this on facebook:
MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU.
And it must be shared.
Largely I haven't felt like writing because I just haven't, and I'm lazy, and largely I haven't felt like writing because I don't like writing when large parts of my brain's processing power are consumed by issues regarding which I do not have definite opinions. Current issue of that description: Hunter.
Have you seen that Direct TV commercial ("Opulence. I has it.")? The one with the miniature giraffe? Oh, excuse me: the petite lap giraffe.This is ridiculous.
I really have a thing for Star Wars. Possibly I haven't mentioned this, as I haven't been actively obsessive about it in a very long time, but my deep affection remains. And no, no, I do not mean episodes I-III. Those really hardly count as being part of the Star Wars canon. Anyway, I saw these bookends somewhere the other day, and I want them. I want them so bad. Unfortunately, I can't really afford to spend $200 on them. $200 bookends! WTF? They're extremely well-rendered though, so I guess I can sort of understand. And I love the idea of taking a scene from A New Hope where the characters are actually pushing against the walls and transforming it into bookends where they're pushing against the books. The timeline is slightly off, but I will accept this, as messing up the timeline allowed them to include the swamp monster thing (I actually used to know what this was called--that's how obsessed I was--but I've forgotten. Probably it's for the best) and Luke being thrown around by it.
Speaking of Ok Go, there's a song on their album that I didn't really notice the first few times through. It's called "Needing/Getting," and it's awesome. If it had existed when David and I broke up (or at least, if I had been aware of its existence), it would have pretty much been the anthem of my life. Have a listen:
And here are the lyrics, if you're interested:
I've been waiting for months, waiting for years, waiting for you to change*.
Oh, well there ain't much that's dumber, there ain't much that's dumber
than pinning your hopes on change in another.
Oh, yeah I still need you--but what good's that gonna do?
Needing is one thing, but getting? Getting's another.
So I've been sitting around, wasting my time, wondering what you've been doing,
oh it ain't real forgiving, it ain't real forgiving
sitting here picturing someone else living.
And oh, yeah I still need you. But what good's that gonna do?
Needing is one thing, and getting, getting's another.
I've been hoping for months, hoping for years, hoping I might forget.
Oh but it don't get much dumber, it don't get much dumber
than trying to forget a girl when you love her!
And oh, yeah I still need you--but what good's that gonna do?
Oh needing is one thing, and getting
getting's another.
Other things:
Yesterday I was told that I "work like a Jamaican." I don't, really, but it was amusing to hear. I kept remembering that phrase today while I was standing outside pressure washing a tool shed. It's rather wet work, especially when the jet of water hits a corner in the woodwork and throws everything back onto you. It's like standing in your own little private rainstorm. On the upside, rainbows.
Speaking of water jets, Jr and I were driving down my street yesterday, and there was a sprinkler on! A sprinkler! (I just typed "sprinklet" by accident. I like it.)
Something I've been trying to figure out and put into words lately: maybe these aren't warring sides in every person, but they are warring sides in me: stoicism and hedonism/epicurism**. These aren't quite a dichotomy, but that doesn't mean they can't fight. For me, stoicism almost always wins. It's not that my actions are never decided by my hedonistic/epicurean side, but that's in the moment. Hedonism, or my brand anyway, is all in the moment, and in the long run, it doesn't make me happy. Stoicism is long-term: it keeps on walking after hedonism lies down to take a nap--and that's when it turns around, looks at what the hedonist has done, and passes judgment. So. Yeah.
From thefreedictionary.com:
Stoic:
1. One who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain.
2. Stoic A member of an originally Greek school of philosophy, founded by Zeno about 308 b.c., believing that God determined everything for the best and that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Its later Roman form advocated the calm acceptance of all occurrences as the unavoidable result of divine will or of the natural order.
Hedonism:
1. Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses.
2. Philosophy The ethical doctrine holding that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically good.
Epicurean***: 1. Devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, especially to the enjoyment of good food and comfort.
*Just to be fair and to be clear, I wasn't just waiting around for David to change. We both needed to change. Things in general needed to change--but they didn't. Or not in the way that we (or I) might have hoped. But they're pretty good now. Things are pretty good.
**I usually work so hard to avoid putting two colons in one sentence. Sometimes though, I just don't feel like rewording the whole thing for the sake of pet peeves. I'm not actually even sure that that's technically incorrect, but it feels like it would be.
***Please forgive the fact that these are different parts of speech. Probably you aren't as much of a perfectionist as I am and didn't even notice, but it's killing me. I'm leaving it because the definition of "stoic" on this particular website is better than the definition of "stoicism."
Tonight I came home from tutoring, ate some baked mac-and-cheese with my dad, and went Christmas caroling with Mom, Chloe, Hartley, Lael, Celeste (H&L's daughter), and Bill and Lynn-Ellen, who are the pastor and pastor's wife, respectively, of the church in which I grew up. We all live within a couple of blocks of one another, and when Mom and Chloe and I caroled with Hartley and Lael (and possibly Celeste?) last year, Bill and Lynn-Ellen opened their door and asked why we hadn't asked them. We love them, so they came with us this time. It was fun, and it's nice that people in real life tend to be more excited about carolers than people in movies. After about two blocks (and we were only really hitting one side of the street) everyone went home, and Chloe and I went tot Hartley and Lael's house to hang out and have hot chocolate. I ended up sitting in front of these:
which Hartley has made as Christmas presents for various family and friends. They are (with the exception of the hook, upper right) steel oyster knives. (He's a freelance carpenter and blacksmith.) You can't tell very well on the cell phone picture, but the tempering colors on the blades are beautiful. I think I'd like to commission a cutlery set someday. Hartley said, "that would be fun."
