The Dark Side

Age 5, my daughter wept at the end of
Star Wars "VI" -- Return of the Jedi.
Was it Yoda's disappearing in a blink
of light? Was it the end of a good
story? Was it even a feeling that Luke
liked Leia, I mean liked her, liked her -- not
as a sister even though she was? Naw.
She wept at Darth Vader's
death. As I recall she always
identified with the villian. It wasn't
Elmo she loved, but Grocho. For her, it was always
"Go, Robbie Rotten." and "Keep trying, Trix Rabbit."
Watching Dora the Explorer it wasn't plucky Dora,
earnest Boots, flower-loving African-American
sounding Isa with whom she identified
-- it was the sneaky fox, Swiper --
she always pretended to be. Maybe
it's my fault. In Dora the Explorer
I secretly identify with the grumpy old troll. Or maybe
it's Jesus' fault. At Easter I
was telling her why he was important
and what they did to him -- a political
execution -- "They
crossed him" as she puts it. And when I got to the
part about why they did it and how
he said love your neighbor and think well
of others, then I also
told her that Jesus said, "I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was in prison and you came to me.
As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren,
you did it to me." When I got to that part she
told me the beginning of her story, "because we're all people" she
said. And so she asks after Annikin
like he was a long lost cousin and
she weeps for Vader who found the force,
but vanished.

Copyright Louise Robertson