Now, I Coooould go ahead and just agree with Steve and Hans on this one. Because I do. But instead I'll go ahead and repost a blog entry that I made when I was a very, VERY new member to the church. A lot of time has passed since then, as I am no longer the fresh-faced newb that I was when I originally posted this, but I think that it's important to show others that we all started the same way. Knights, Masters, even those of us on the Executive Committee did, in fact have a first day here. So here, I give you my entry \"How the Force Found Me.\"
The evening of my 30th birthday,(Dec.19) I found myself cheerfully officiating an epic lightsaber duel between my two young sons, Korbyn, (5) and Courtney(3). The pair had dressed the part completely. Both wearing their snow boots, (Cuz Jedi wear tall boots) and their winter coats,(For the hoods) as well as gloves.(not mandatory attire, but the Skywalker boys seemed to find them necessary. *g*) The two showed remarkable form.
It was obvious to me that they had paid close attention to the moves of a Jedi from the films. Korbyn would even occasionally raise his right hand in a mock “Force Push” gesture. It was a wonderful battle. That is, until Korbyn took an ill-fated blow to the tip of the finger. Oh yeah. He was pissed off. He then raised up with both hands, intending on landing a hit that would end the duel immediately. His efforts were met by me grabbing his saber from behind and saying, “Remember Korby. Anger leads to the Dark Side.” He immediately stopped, told Cort to hold on, and asked me, “Dad, are you a Jedi?” To which I somewhat chuckled and came back with, “No son. I’m not a Jedi.” Perplexed, he looks up at me with his enormous blue eyes and asks, “Well….. How do you know so much about being a Jedi?” Again, I chuckled. “Well, bud. I don’t know. I used to read a lot of the books when I was younger. And I have always tried to act like a Jedi would act since then.” He smiled and said, “OK Dad. But can I be a Jedi?”
Taken aback by his question, I was forced to retreat for a second. I gave him the generic answer, “You can be anything that you care to be.” Seconds later, my 13 year-old daughter chimed into the conversation. “No, stupid. There’s no such thing as a Jedi. You can never be a Jedi. Not unless George Lucas hires you to act like one in a movie.” “Andrea, “ I said, “don’t knock them off of their cloud, please.” And then I went to the computer. I remembered from my own childhood, that waaaaay back after the release of RotJ you could buy Jedi Underoos. A trinket that came with said underpants was a certificate on the back, that granted the rank of Honorary Jedi Knight to the possessor of the garments.
I felt that a Google Image search would easily help me reach my goal of simply printing out a certificate that I could frame and hang on their bedroom wall, telling the world that my boys were indeed Jedi Knights. I did find the exact document that I had queried, however, in much too small of a size to be of any use to me. So I dug deeper. And deeper. And still deeper until I abandoned the image search and Googled, “How to become a Jedi.” I had hoped that perhaps some blogger had posted a picture of this form as undeniable proof of their astuteness with The Force, and then I could complete my quest. Instead, I found another world.
After a few wild goose chase clicks, I landed on what seemed to be a simple Geocities message board. One click later,(I think that the poster was nicked, “JohnnyTexas?”) I found myself here. My eyes had been opened to an entire community of people that shared the same lifestyle. So I read, and read some more. We went out for pizza that night, seeing as it WAS my birthday and all. But the next day I found myself repeating the search. Finally, I landed on this site again. Where I continued reading. I was absolutely enveloped by the new knowledge that I was taking in. I didn’t even care to check my email, or countless other websites that I check daily.
Seriously, folks. I was enthralled! When my wife returned home from work, I talked to her about it. I was surprised as hell about her standpoint. When I first asked her, I said, “Honey, what would you think if I devoted myself to becoming a Jedi?” *g* Her reaction was an understanding “Fangeek” type of look. That is, until I showed her some of the things that I had read on this site. She told me that I should go for it. So I joined, and haven’t looked back. I am still new, and I still do mostly reading rather than posting. But I already feel like my life has improved so much more. For that, I thank you all.
We may not have had any contact as of yet on a personal level, but all of your contributions helped me make up my mind. Again, thank you. I ended up making my boys their own, original certificates. And they think that it’s cool as all get out that their Daddy is rubbing virtual elbows with those that they would call heroes. My daughters have also taken an interest. I am beaming. I am thankful. I am their father. I am their mother’s husband. I am Joshua. I am Nayeldraccon. I am………………a Jedi.
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