Viviene Coyne, fondly called Bing by her friends, is one woman you could not fail to notice in the blogosphere because of her undaunted style of presenting her thoughts and stories.

She talks about her life as an immigrant in the US , and many more in her blog I Love/Hate America. I feel honored to have been invited to be a guest writer in her blog with my story.

By: Luke Christian Yu

I first watched Star Wars when I was three or four years old. I do admit that I did not understand much of it at that time. Instead, I kept on asking some of the adults watching along with me about some parts of the plot. Looking back at their answers to my questions, it seems like they did not understand much, either. Some of the scenes I saw at that time, however, made an impression on my young mind. While reviewing Star Wars a number of times decades later, I can still see clearly those scenes and feel the hard wooden chair I sat on when I was a child watching that movie.

For a lot of people, Star Wars is just another science fiction movie that takes place a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away—a movie that justifies teenagers and even those beyond to tell each other “May the Force be with you”. But for me, Star Wars is something deeper and more real. Their galaxy does not seem to be parsecs away, either. It might not even be out of place within the neighborhood.

Additionally, one may not need to look long and hard to find someone in the workplace or school that matches a B1 battle droid in sheer stupidity. (Roger, roger) A tyrant not unlike Emperor Palpatine might even be behind the government of some state or nation. All within the confines of our watery blue planet without having to board the Millennium Falcon and jump to hyperspace.

I view Star Wars as a story about Anakin Skywalker—the chosen one who has the highest midi-chlorian count of any Jedi, was conceived by a virgin and who faced death unflinchingly to end the suffering brought about by Darth Sidious. Star Wars is not about the good and the bad, the light and the dark, nor the yin and the yang.

It is about one man’s struggle for balance. Jedi Master Yoda represents the Light and Sith Lord Darth Sidious represents the Dark; but again, Star Wars is not about them. It is about Jedi Anakin/Darth Vader who represents both the Light and the Dark. While still Anakin, he might have traces of the Dark Side within him masquerading as fear, then anger and hatred; but even when he was transformed into Darth Vader, there was still good left in him. He was a perfect human representation of the Tai Chi symbol.

The story began when the young Anakin Skywalker was discovered by a Jedi Knight; it ended with his death and redemption. You can say that the prequel trilogy is about Anakin and the original trilogy is about Darth Vader. Others would say that Luke is the principal protagonist of the story and Lord Vader, the principal antagonist. Maybe, but in the grand scheme of things, it is more like Anakin Skywalker versus himself. Luke’s role, in my opinion, is just like his mother before him—a pivot in Anakin’s journey, nothing more.

Star Wars is not only my all-time favorite sci-fi/fantasy movie; it also influenced the way I look at things. Why? Honestly, I have not thought of that until now. Maybe it is because I can relate to it or because it is consistent with my own worldview. After all, if something is totally inconsistent with your worldview then it cannot influence you in any way, right? Or could it? But then, you might again ask whether it really is consistent with my worldview or whether it is my worldview that is concordant with Star Wars as it has shaped my worldview in the first place. That question, I cannot answer you. In a parallel plane,

Plato might have asked whether the virtues are good because they are appreciated by the Jedi, or whether they are appreciated by the Jedi because they are good.

Star Wars is deep—even philosophical. And there are many concepts, instances and conflicts in my life which I can deeply relate to the movie. Like I said, it influenced my thoughts in some ways. I will try to look into a few of them here. But understand that dissecting Star Wars like this could fill an entire book of its own. So let me just tell you as much as I can gather in a sitting or two. Why do I make this connections, you ask? Could it be because I am hopelessly addicted to Star Wars or because the conflicts in Star Wars are so much similar to those in real life? Now, I am not formally trained in philosophy or something, but those who know me know that I do tend to ask questions a lot.

First, I will talk about the high degree of contrast in the morals and dogma that I was initiated into. I was born, baptized, and raised as a Roman Catholic. Our family has more than our fair share of religious ministers—not to mention those in various religious organizations which I do not even know the name of.

These guys masquerade as aunts, uncles, cousins, or what have you. Sort of like Darth Sidious hiding behind the Senator Palpatine façade, right? Wrong. I was just kidding you. My point is, I was already shown the distinctively clear line between what is right and what is wrong even at an early age.

The line was so very clear, then. So clear that when one of those relatives stepped inside my room while I was away and found my books, she asked my mother to burn almost a row of them. Why? Like I told you, the line was very clear and those books happen to stand on the other side of that line.

You must be thinking of dark dangerous books, oozing with black magic and demon invocation, by now. That would have been fun but I am sorry to disappoint; those books were about science—prehistoric times, to be exact. You know, dinosaurs, prehistoric man, continental drift and stuff.

My first major is in the field of applied science so I do not think it is that inconceivable to have those sorts of books. However, it seems like some people are still bent on convincing others that the earth is just a couple thousand or so years old despite tons of archeological digs as old as 1.3 million years staring them at the face. Oh, I forgot: Those fossils were planted evidence by a red guy with horns, hooves and a pointy tail and were calculated to deceive mankind. Right. And I thought the Dark Ages was no more.

In the early part of the first episode of the original trilogy, this clear distinction between good and evil was shown when Darth Vader confronted Princess Leia Organa. One was a menacing seven-foot man in pitch-black armor and radiating pure evil; the other was an innocent-looking petite woman dressed in soft, pure-white cloth exuding goodness. A perfect symbolic representation, don’t you think.

But going deeper into the movie, as in life, you will find moral ambiguity and shades of gray in a supposed-to-be-black-and-white world of Star Wars where everyone works either for the Light or the Dark. I’d like to individually enumerate these instances but sadly, I will be quickly running out of space if I do so. I also do not have the luxury of time. So, it might be better to leave that as an exercise to the reader. As a bonus, it will make reviewing the movie that much more exciting.

But the color of my world or the absence thereof is not the only thing that I can relate with Star Wars. Star Wars, you see, has some depth if you look closely enough. The next time you watch Star Wars, watch out for this phrase: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” In every episode of Star Wars, you will hear at least one of the main characters share this sentiment. I have heard it even in the animated movie and in the television series. Call it a basic expression of existential anxiety. I am sure that at some time in your life, you felt this intuitive response when confronted by an undefined problem. In episode three of the first season of The Clone Wars, the character who said that phrase was, of all things, a B1 battle droid piloting General Grievous’ Ship! Funny; I never thought they were capable of combat without shooting each other, much less existential thought.

Now, Let me share with you a scene from the original trilogy about the possible inconsistency between appearance and reality. When Luke was about to pass out in the planet Hoth (The name is curious as the planet was clearly very, very cold. A contradiction?) because of the cold, Obi-Wan’s Force ghost appeared before him and told him to go to the planet Dagobah and look for a great Jedi Warrior by the name of Yoda. Luke then went to the Dagobah system. What he found in that remote world of swamps and forests is mentally stimulating.

Man is a very visual creature. We lean heavily on what we see. We even demand that “to see is to believe”. I do not think that there is a problem with that unless you already have a preconceived notion of what you should be seeing. Selective perception is problematic, at best.

In a lot times, I find myself in my office when someone comes in looking for me. I would talk to that client and hear her say that she’d rather talk to me. Then I’d say “Oh, sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I am him.” There would then be that puzzled, unbelieving look in her face that I have seen countless of times in other’s faces. This scenario happens more times than I care to count. Then, my thoughts would wander back to that swampy planet…

When Luke arrived in Dagobah, he was startled by an old, small, green dwarf with large eyes. Being a young warrior, he instinctively aimed his blaster at the little green goblin. The poor thing was now covering his face and whimpering “Away put your weapon! I mean you no harm” Seeing the dwarf as a harmless little creature, he put away his weapon.

Anyway, he thinks, he could probably just kick this thing into the swamp if ever it would try to harm him. After that, the creature acted like a silly, old beggar trying to rummage through Luke’s supplies for food, taste some, and throw away stuff he does not like. Luke had no idea that this thing is the Yoda he has been searching for. When he told the dwarf that he is looking for a great warrior, it just laughed and said “wars not make one great.” Right, and that response came from a Grand Master Jedi whose name, Yoda, means “warrior” in Sanskrit. But surely,
the dwarf does not look like one.

I am not saying that I am a dwarf with large eyes. Neither am I saying that I am a Jedi Master who could wield a lightsaber and do a Form IV as lethally graceful as Yoda does. All I am saying is that it would be a lot better for all if we could only shed our preconceived notions and ideas and freshly perceive the world.

But Star Wars is not only about morality and philosophy; it is also about hope. Since this book is supposed to be an inspirational book rather than a book on the philosophy of some old movie as applied to the life of some obscure person, I saved this part for last.

Darth Vader, as I have said, has been considered by many to be an evil, mean killing machine. That cannot be denied. That said, I hope that all of us can be like Darth Vader. Yes, I said it. You can read that again, if you want.

The truth is that no one in this world could truly claim that he had not gone to the Dark Side or that he will not be seduced by its power. Every breathing human in this world has, at one time, crossed the boundary or will soon be crossing it.

Yes, none of them may have killed another human being for not finishing the Death Star on schedule using the power of the Dark Side in the form of a Force choke to do the deed; but have none of us lied as early as grade school specially during examination time? It would also be very surprising if none of us used or tried to use another person for our own needs, at least once, just like what Vader and Sidious have done.

The problem is, once you have been to the Dark Side, it would be difficult to come back to the Light. And the longer you stay there, the stronger will its hold be on you. Darth Vader declares this difficulty to his son, Luke, when he said, “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side, I must obey my master… It is too late for me, son.”

Once you have experienced how easy it was to copy your seatmate’s answers during grade school, it would seem to make more sense to do it again than to study diligently. Then, when you get used to it, it would be more difficult to be rid of the habit in your higher years. It goes on in the workplace and the rest of your life. Doing it the right way is almost always harder. Why else do you think would there be spammers in the Internet and unscrupulous businesses and get rich quick schemes?

When Luke asked Yoda whether the Dark Side is stronger, Yoda replied “No, but it is quicker, easier, more seductive.”

But difficult as it is, Vader showed that it can be done. And if we cannot avoid the Dark Side, or if we have already been bathing in its pleasures, I just hope that we can be as strong and courageous like Lord Vader who was able to search within himself and find the key to make it back to the Light.

May the Force be with you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Luke is called Master Jedi Luke by the Jedi bloggers.

He is also @dezertsnow at Twitter.

His blog is “A Walk in the Dark” or “Law of the Force” which was created when Jan Geronimo of Writing to Exhale insisted that he should have his own blog instead of being a great commentator/commenter.

His first post “About How This Blog Came To Be” earned 77 comments, the first I have seen of its kind yet in blogging. He writes with a discerning and meticulous eye, careful to present the topic at hand in an organized and tapoted manner. Sometimes I imagine him “defragging/defragmenting” his highly technical terms to suit his “technically-challenged” readers – including me.

Each of the Jedi bloggers has a completely unique style of writing that “clicks” with me. For Luke, it is his philosophical mind which tries to merge with his expertise in internet technology and computer science.

By the way, I would like to mention that he is happily married to a lawyer, Dee, who authors another blog – Tales From The Mom Side.

This dynamo of a couple is a tandem to beat in the blogosphere.

A toast for both of you, guys!

Photo by futureatlas.com

This is a picture for use as a wall paper for your computers. I didn’t know to whom I would credit this.

Cutting edge technology has made almost anything possible now. We have witnessed how movies have evolved using the “green screen” where directors can virtually put the actors into the center of a scene without them going to the locations themselves. There was even a “rumor” about an actor doing all his dangerous and adventurous scenes in the confines of the production studio.

Here is one video in which MARTINA MCBRIDE is transported back in time to join ELVIS PRESLEY-The American Idol of All times (in the 1970s) in this duet entitled: “Blue Christmas”. Enjoy!

Video from: ElvisFanatic1

By: Elmot

I saw dancing, sheep
Of puffy irregular whites;
Running, playing, and changing
Shapes with the summer sun.

They run and catch
Each other’s tails,
bump and mate each other’s wool.

Others sleep in the curving
Corner of velvet farm,
Their colors I wonder is
Not of perfect white?
Theirs’ are sleeping colors
Puffy ash?

Then, sheep started to feast
On velvet and changing grass,
They stop, and eat and gently hop;
Till the farm in blowing wind concealed.

All these innocent puffy sheep ate
The changing velvet grass;
Through blowing wind,
Herded happily changing,
To sleep in the edge
of the velvet farmland.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elmot is the prolific and dynamic writer behind three blogs namely:

PinoySoundingBoard: Commentaries on Socio-Political Issues,
Ani-Mo!: Elmot’s Whatever Blog and
Gaudencio Diaz: My Poetry Blog

He is a jovial and cheerful soul, you’d be surprised to find out that he discusses serious socio-economic problems and concerns in his blog.

Read his latest post on the May 2010 Election Concerns: An Online Interview with Mr. James Jimenez

“My Blog is my alter-ego, the online me: where I share some of my rants, senseless commentaries on everything I see, hear and smell…” he says this of his blog.

He is also an incredibly versatile poet who could shift easily from composing an erotic poem to a pristine, virginal poem like this one.

Thanks Elmot for accepting my invitation for a guest post, and for this refreshing and invigorating poem.

Photo by Tumble Fish Studio

This “Kreativ Blogger Award.” was given by Vivian Zabel, president of 4RV Publishing and author of the blog, “Brain Cells and Bubble Wrap“, to Holly Jahangiri of the blog “It’s All a Matter of Perspective: Mine”

Holly , also the author of the children’s book – “Trockle” – has now passed on the award to me. Thanks, Holly.

The mechanics is to write “Seven Things About Me That People Might Find Interesting” and then pass on the award to bloggers whom you think are “kreative.” The rules are found below. I lifted this verbatim from Holly’s site:

Start of excerpt

The “Rules”

Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

End of excerpt

So here are the seven things about me that you may find interesting:

1. I love music and I could carry a tune. Perhaps if I had started training while I was still young, then I would have developed this talent. Unluckily, this was not granted so I just sing in the confines of my room, or in the comfort room….he he he…My favorites are Kenny Rogers, Carpenters, ABBA, Mariah, Celine, Westlife, and Savage Garden.

2. I have acrophobia, most people do. But it’s different with me, I only fear high-rise buildings and not mountain peaks or flying; the ground seems to be beckoning, ouch!

3. I once wrote a sci-fi short story which I believed was my best. I had created an entirely new world for it, with matching vocabulary; but alas, it was rejected by all local magazines while some of what I thought were not so good were accepted. I don’t know where that manuscript is now.

4. My next project after the Inspirational Book is a poetry magazine with three poets – Zorlone and Roy and of course me. I am still deciding whether to include other poets. I’m so excited about this, as this would be with colored pictures. I hope you’ll reserve a copy. The first one will be available by first week of October.

5. I love crossword puzzles. Whenever I find one, I try to answer it, but I never bought a book on crossword puzzles. Come to think of it, perhaps I’ll buy one soon.

6. I played the quitar when I was in college, sang James Taylor, Carole King , John Denver and even the Stylistics. I played for the church choir too.

7. I hate hypocrites. Pompous people who believe that they alone have the monopoly of all the goodness and virtues that God has handed down to humans. People who fulfill their religious rituals exceptionally well, but who are indifferent once they are outside the confines of their churches. Well, I am hypocritical too at times but I don’t shout to high heavens that I’m better than anyone else.

So these are the things I hope you’ll find interesting about me. The other more shocking truths, I have to keep them to myself.

I would like to pass this award to:

Aleluia Sanjuan a.k.a Punky Paige of PunkyPaige.com . Her blog is one creative venue for anything under the sun from political commentaries, to poems, to videos, to random thoughts and many more. It would surely take a very enterprising blogger to come up with various posts in different categories.

I also passed this on to anyone who thinks he/she can be creative.

Feel free to post this in your blog. Happy Blogging!

Incidentally, I have new posts:
My Blogging Friends.
A Poem for My Son (in Zorlone’s Blog)

I got married at a very young age; that was why when my children were growing up, I simultaneously learned how to be a responsible adult and a good mother as well. It was a Herculean task! But I was an optimist (and still am), so I bravely faced all the challenges with a grain of salt and a smile on my face. I had to perceive these experiences as fun and joyful because they were peppered with humorous episodes along the way.

These are a few of those joyful memories that I and my son experienced in our quest for maturity.

When my son had his first crush, he went on all day and night, bugging me about what would be an appropriate gift for her on Christmas day. After we did our rounds at the mall, we decided on a cute pink teddy bear. He was so excited when we finally bought it. The party came and he was literally bouncing with joy. At last! he can now express his feelings. I was as excited as he was. He wrote his letter and tucked it into the arms of the teddy bear before requesting me to wrap it. He went to the party with a lilt in his steps as I waited anxiously at home.

When he came home however, he was sad and sullen. “What happened? She didn’t like the gift?” I asked worriedly.

” Well, she didn’t want to accept it,” he replied sadly

“Why?” I inquired, surprised.

“You see mom, it was not her name on the gift card” he exclaimed , and there were tears in his eyes.

My heart stopped for one interminable minute. What name did I write? Was it Cindy? Or Claire? In my haste and excitement, I didn’t double check with my son.

“I wrote Cindy,” I said mortified. “I did.”

“Well mom, her name is not Cindy, it’s Claire!”

You could just imagine how I felt. I was thinking how dumb I was not to have verified her name! I reprimanded him for not double checking the card himself. But eventually I had to apologize because it was clearly my fault. We were both so excited and I had inadvertently made a mistake.

I was worried that this first “girl- experience” might traumatize him . My worries were unfounded however, because after two days, he came to me and said: “Don’t worry about it now , mom. If she couldn’t understand a simple explanation, then I don’t think we could hit it off as friends,” and with that, the matter was conveniently forgotten.

We had learned a lesson though. In his succeeding gifts, he made sure he wrote the cards himself. He still asked for help when deciding on what to buy and when gift wrapping; and yes, sometimes I still wrote the names, but he always double-checked them before handing them over to the recipients.

Another event that made a mark also in his teen years was the time that he was establishing his adulthood. He was a college sophomore then and fraternity was the “in” thing. The concept among his peers was that: you were not a “man” unless you belong to a fraternity. The problem was that in previous cases, the process of their “neophyte initiation,” serious injuries occurred and some even resulted to death.

This made me very nervous and I was praying to high heavens that they would leave him alone. He; however, was not spared. He came to me one morning with that dilemma in his mind. A classmate was recruiting him for a certain fraternity.

I had to consider that he was no longer a young child whom I could command according to my wishes; that in the end, he would be responsible in deciding what course of action he would be embarking on.

It was serendipity that one of my students was an ROTC officer and they were enlisting new recruits for officer’s training.

” You don’t have to prove you’re a man, ” I said with all the confidence I could muster. Earlier, I had talked to my husband about this and he had assured me that we had brought up our son well and he would have to decide correctly on his own.

“Only those who are not sure of themselves will have to prove themselves, ” I said to my son.

“I know mom, but I would like to join primarily because I want to strengthen my physical stamina and learn how to be a good team player.”

“Okay, I have a more attractive alternative, ” I winked at him. ” The ROTC will be training new recruits for their staff. I don’t have to enumerate the benefits you could reap from this, if you pass their intensive training.”

To make the story short, he opted for the ROTC officer’s training. He had undergone one month of rigorous physical and mental training. The last day of their training was what they called the “Hell Day”, where they would have an overnight stay at the school grounds. I have heard that they were physically manhandled and severely exhausted by their training officers on this last day. Whoever could not make it on that particular event, would be eliminated.

So there I was, so high strung , even summoning my student to ask if the rumors were true. He just smiled and said: ” Trust your son, Ma’am.”

I could not relax though. When it was nearing midnight I stormed the school gates demanding to be allowed inside the campus. The kind security guard allowed me in when I refused to leave.

My son’s face was a mask of embarrassment when he saw me. The Officer In Charge however was accommodating. He even offered me a seat as their guest of honor and I had a bird’s eyeview of what was happening in the entire field.

They were going from one training officer to another and they were made to do exercises (crawling below a barbed wire fence, kneeling on peas for several minutes, running around the field until the officer told them to stop, etc. etc.) I felt exhausted just by looking at them.

After sometime, there was a nudge on my shoulder. I turned to face my son who said: “Mom, don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay. You’re the only parent who’s here, please don’t embarrass me. “

He bent, kissed me and whispered :” I love you,” and before I could reply, he was off in a flash, back to his marathon.

I stood up and felt hot all over. What a fool I was! Indeed, I was the only parent in the oval. I waved at their OIC and left hurriedly, assuring myself that my son would be fine, that I had nothing to worry about. He came home the following morning with raw bruises and minor wounds – but he was alive!

Of course, he graduated from the ROTC officer’s training the following week , with flying colors! As I stood there proudly, pinning his medal, I learned another lesson: I was there to guide him, but he has to tread his own way to manhood.

Presently, at age 31, he is the youngest major in the regional military camp here in our locality; and had been assigned as the OIC of one big division.

There are still numerous events that we both encountered in his growing up years, but suffice to say that raising my son was a great learning experience not only for him, but also for me. I would like to categorically state that I had survived raising my teen, and what a wonderful journey it was!

Photo by: mikebaird