Aren't You a Little Short for a Storm Trooper?

Princess Leia Organa, Carrie Fisher, you embodied the story I love.

1977 is stamped on the back of the leg of this action figure that I unpacked from a storage tote today. We're moving to our new house in Sidney, Ohio. Earlier in the day I had a news alert on my smart-phone, Carrie Fisher had died. 

I was shocked at the emotion that burst in like a flood. It was as if every good part of my child-hood suddenly shattered. I felt like I'd lost a family member. I was born in 1974 and I remember when my world was expanded while watching Star Wars. My entire life has been framed in the metaphor of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia. Their is hope and a good that is worth more than life. 

I remember carrying this same action figure of Princess Leia to West Elkton Elemetary where more figures were brought by my friends, Kevin Dyehouse and Jerry Schul. Star Wars captivated us in our Kindergarten year of 1979 and held us tight with the hope of all things good throughout the tumultuous years of growing up.

The story of a small group of friends, loyal to each other, beating down evil and saving the universe, it made us somehow feel that we could survive in this world. 

And now the breath is somehow knocked out of me as I realize that my reality must take on the nature of the tale. The story gave us what it could, and now we must be about the lessons that it gave to us. 

"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" Leia asked this when she first met Luke. Hope was found in the armor of the enemy. Isn't this just like our lives? Hope is strongest when we see it in the middle of certain defeat. So much of my life has always been this way.

My faith is repeatedly restored in moments when it seems that all hope is lost. 

And so now, on the eve before our family loads up a U-Haul truck and heads sixty-five miles north to Sidney, my broken heart is filled with the hope of a space princess who risked her life to save worlds. I am reminded of the power of belief, of faith, and the significance of our actions. 

I'll confess to you that I'm a little short for a storm trooper. I've sometimes been seen as lacking by others, and I've frequently identified myself this same way. And it's true. I just don't measure up. But, I have a hope. The story that envelops me is greater than my ability. I engage that story and I am carried by something that is so much bigger than myself.

Today I mourn the death of Carrie Fisher, but deep inside my heart, I feel the force of the story that she embodied. The story that captivated my childhood heart, and beats strong within me even today. We carry within us the passion of the greatest of stories. The light that shines within us can conquer the dark side of any problem. 

I latch on to the hope that extends beyond circumstance, and is grounded deep within my childhood. I may be a little short for a storm trooper, but the power of something greater runs strong within my life.