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May The Force Be With You

There is a scene in the first Star Wars Movie that came out (Episode IV: A New Hope), in which Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi, who are traveling in a landspeeder - the Star Wars version of a car, approach a roadblock that is guarded by Stormtroopers - the SW version of border patrol, and the Stormtroopers are not about to let them go through. The situation seems hopeless.

However, Obi Wan leans over and just sort of ‘informs’ the Stormtrooper that they don’t need a pass, and miraculously, the Stormtrooper tells Luke, who is driving, that they don’t need a pass. Obi Wan again ‘informs’ the Stormtrooper that they can go right through, and darn if that ol’ Stormtrooper doesn’t just move right out of the way and let them through.

This was, of course, shocking to young Luke Skywalker, who was not yet totally familiar with The Force, but it was also shocking to me at the time, a 10-year-old child. Actually, I thought it was sorta funny and I thought the movie director was sorta ‘cheating.’ I thought he couldn’t think up some sort of way for them to get around this roadblock, so he just made up this hokey idea of Kenobi just ‘telling’ the Stormtroopers how they would behave and then having them do exactly that. Ridiculous, right? But is it?

When you decide to have a relaxing dinner with your spouse and you go to the restaurant with a loving and peaceful attitude, don’t you get better service than when you go to the restaurant totally frazzled, angry at the world, and ready to be ripped off yet again?

How about when you’re trying to get a small child to stop crying? What works better – yelling at them, shaking them, and threatening to swat them or adopting a smiling, happy disposition and acting in a pleasant way towards them? We all know that threatening and yelling at a crying child only makes it worse. If, instead, you use the ‘force’ of your pleasant, calm, relaxed will, you can pass that calmness on to them, is if it were theirs, just as Obi Wan passed the ideas on to the Stormtroopers. Your child will act upon your ideas as if they were their own. Parents have “The Force” and can use it every day.

When you walk into a room in a dress that you know doesn’t really fit you right, with shoes that you don’t really like, and you didn’t get enough time to do your hair, what kind of attention do you get? Probably not much. However, when you glide into a room, wearing just the right dress, with your hair and make-up just the way you like it, don’t you command the attention of that room? That’s “The Force.” We all have it and we can all use it – and it doesn’t matter what the dress or the hair or the make-up REALLY look like, it’s our opinion about it that matters. What you decide to think about yourself influences the way others will think about you.

So, today, decide to use “The Force” for good. Decide that you will have a good day and that others will treat you well. Decide that it will be fun at work and that you will hear funny stories and jokes from your friends. Decide that nothing negative is going to get you down and decide that you will spread your positive influence to everyone you meet.

May The Force Be With You!

Posted on April 26, 2005