Revenge of the Sith

I just got back from watching Star Wars...Revenge of the Sith. It was probably the best of the 3 prequels without a doubt. Awesome movie...though quite dark and sad. Not like the others at all. I guess if you had to compare...it would be most similar to the Empire Strikes Back.

But as I sat watching that movie...it seemed that at some distant level...I could relate to the troubles Anakin Skywalker had that turned him to the dark side. As with me...he started his slide downhill for the love a woman. Even before he sought revenge for his mother's death...he had started the slide downhill after falling in love with Padme. His love for her clouded his mind and logic. It weakened him and thus...allowed the dark side to overtake him.
Hmmmm...where have I seen that before? Was it really no different than my love for Alma back at the Academy.? My love for her clouded my reason and judgement...thus allowing for the "dark side" to control my emotions. Decisions I made were flawed and contorted. Love had done that to me. As a result...like Anakin...I fell out of favor with the Republic. I was soon an Officer of the Rebublic no more. Like Anakin...I had lost what had been most important to me...my love and my career.
I had ended up a shell of a man...not of who I was before.

Even more striking as an interesting parallel...was the death of my instructor at the Academy, B. Moxley, by murder in 1994. She probably would have been equilvilent to a Jedi master teaching a young Padawan. She was graceful and wise beyond her years. I suppose I equate that FLETC Academy not unlike the training that young Jedi's undertook in the movie.

So for me...Revenge of the Sith held a special significance as a rough parallel of my own troubled life. I once held promise...where now I hold none. I once held love...where now I hold none. I once held respect...where now I hold none. I once held happiness...where now I hold none. The movie may have occurred a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...but the story is cut of the same cloth. A cloth that the fictional Anakin Skywalker and I would share. One of perpetual love and sacrafice...without regard to the terrible consequences that would occur.

Only now do I fully understand the power of the "dark side". It led me down the path of ruin. It led me to drive away the one of whom I loved. In the end...it led me to destroy all that could have been. Take this as a warning to all who read these words...beware of the power of the dark side...the dark side of humanity and emotion. For cloud your mind it will...and all that could have been...will never be.