Failure, Peace and Purpose in The Last Jedi
The following contains major spoilers for The Last Jedi.
I am grateful to have been a child the first time I watched Star Wars. As an 8 year old, I was still young enough to plunge unselfconsciously into a galaxy of myth and imaginary friends, and still impressionable enough for it to shape my nascent worldview as effortlessly as melted wax.
From Star Wars, I learned that redemption is the highest, most spiritually vital concept, and that there is an undying spark of good in everyone that can always be rekindled through acts of mercy, compassion, and grace. The struggle between light and darkness within each of us became the lens through which I viewed and coped with my surroundings, and Luke Skywalker, who appeared, to my young eyes, to beat back the darkness for good with a single act of mercy, became my hero.
But imaginary friends do not typically survive the transition to adulthood, and most childhood idealism is tempered, if not fractured, by experience. If we are lucky, these fractures generate wisdom rather than bitterness. Darkness comes for all of us, in many forms, and no single act of goodness can beat it back forever. Victory is temporary, and useful only insofar as it makes it easier to face the next challenge, and the next, and to inspire goodness in others. Learning to embrace this cycle, to accept…
