The Dark Side

Allow me to follow my most recent posts to their logical conclusion. Up to this point I have been talking about me, what’s going on in my life, and the many discouragements that have beset me along the way. Given the nature of my situation, and the many instances that try to pull me under, (depression, rejection, and other things), it is logical for me to fall under their sway. To be honest, if it were any other person in my situation, they might have. 

But, I just don’t see life like everyone else does. It’s very difficult to discourage me in any way, shape, form, or fashion that would actually produce a significant amount of depression. I’m strange like that.

But, those emotions naturally lead to the dark side. A place where every contrary emotion to light and good takes residence in your mind, (because at this point they already have your heart), and fester and plot. The mind is weak and falls prey to such deceptions as these, causing us to believe the lie and then act upon that belief.

The dark side is a place where we realize that we aren’t worth anything. Because really we aren’t worth much by ourselves… That’s why God gives us worth and value. You are only worth what other people will pay for you: Jesus paid His life. You are worth an immense amount to God.

But, the dark side helps us conveniently forget our worth in Christ, and we become Anakin Skywalker. We become haters of what we once loved, and vow to destroy everything good and right.

The warning is not to let things get you in a rut that leads to the dark side. The encouragement: God’s worth for you is so much more than any value you could place upon yourself. You will never have to be depressed, you choose to.

It’s kind of short today. Just ponder it a little longer,  I don’t always have a lot to say.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist

Star(bucks) Wars!

I think this is hilarious, and following up on my post about Starbucks and the Red Cup Controversy, allow me to present the Star(bucks) Wars! 

Alright, so Starbucks seems to quite innocently introduce a simplistic, two-toned cup design for their annual holiday Red Cup. Looks like this:

 
An Evangelist on social gives Christianity a black eye and takes this lack of design or pattern personally. You see, Starbucks has in the past included snowflakes, trees, or ornament patterns on the Red Cup and anything less than that is, to this man Anti-Christmas. Gasp! Oh, no, say it isn’t so! A new-age, anti-Christian coffee shop is taking patterns off of their cups! No!!!

So, this guy blows up social media with a feiry: “Starbucks is the Antchrist!”, or something similar; completely ignoring the fact that red is a Christmas color more than trees and snowflakes are Christmas patterns. There would be no Christmas without the blood of Christ. That and red and green don’t go together atbany other time of the year, so why bother even making it a red cup if you’re going to go all Anti-Christmas on us?

Just a few days ago, in an attempt to become the holiday friendly company coming off the heels of a Christmas confetti explosion called the “Red Cup Controversy”, Dunkin Donuts has introduced their JOY cup.

 
That’s about as Christmasy as you can get. Social media has again   responded, this time, hailing Dunkin Donuts as the “Savior of Christmas”, or some mumbo-jumbo like that. Not that it’s wrong of Dunkin Donuts to promote joy this Christmas, but the timing seems awfully convenient don’t you think?

Well, that alone is a story, but it’s not the end of this story. In retaliation to Dunkin Donuts “Joy” cup, Starbucks has returned with their own marketing ploy, consequently it is also named the “Joy Cup”.

 
The only thing about this cup, well, there are a lot of things wrong about this cup, but one big thing is that Starbucks seems to be the center of the red and green themed Christmas joy. Again though, it’s 50% marketing and 50% trying to recover from the Red Cup explosion. 

In the midst of the Star(bucks) Wars we see the commercialism of Christmas, but also the reason behind it. Every business want to make Christmas about you, while in reality making it about them. To convince you to buy from them, they appeal to your Christmas spirit by being as festive as they can; but it’s not because they like Christmas, it’s because they like the money Christmas brings. Christmas isn’t about you, it’s not about Christ, it’s about the lost. 

Wow! Pause right there for a moment. What? Did I really just say that God’s holiday isn’t about His Son? Did I really just say that you are not the reason He came and therefore the reason for the season?

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God came for the lost, if you’re a Christian, you’re not the lost, you are the saved. For Christians, Christmas is a time of rejoicing. But, Christ came to save, if we are saved, Christmas is no longer about us: it’s about them. And the lost in the world are not just the poor and destitute, but also the rich and famous. Hell is no respecter of persons, it accepts the rich and poor alike.

Christ came, but the reason He came is the reason for this season. With all the different people and businesses vying for your money and your attention, focus on the real reason for the season.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist

Consequences

Well, I ended the last post on a note of the Skywalker family and their dysfunctionality. While I’m on the subject, I’d like to address what is possibly one of the best portrayals of the consequences of our actions in all of film.

In the third movie of the Star Wars series Anakin Skywalker, who is now married to Senetor Amidala, and the personal assistant to the Supreme Chancelor Palpatine, begins to have nightmares.

Because this young Jedi is special, and seems to be a one who will bring balance to the power that binds all thing together: The Force, he is not trusted by his superiors and these dreams, he thinks will predict the future. So, when he sees that his wife will die in childbirth, he takes drastic measures. He will do anything to save her, including becoming that which he had sworn and was destined to destroy: a Sith Lord. The Sith were controlled by the evil side of The Force known as the Dark Side, and were opposed to anything that did not advance their own power. 

In the story, the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was actually a Sith Lord though no one knew. He and Anakin became close and Anakin was open about his fears of losing his wife. Palpatine took advantage of this weakness to try to lull Anakin to the Dark Side; he told Anakin that he knew of a Sith who had power over life and death and could stop people from dying. Palpatine’s plan for Anakin was to make him his apprentice to learn the dark arts, and so he slowly turned Anakin against everyone he used to trust and then finally Anakin gave in. 

Plot Point #1: Anakin Skywalker became an evil Sith to save his wife’s life. 

Well, turning evil and serving a Sith meant obeying the power hungry beast. Anakin followed orders and wiped out nearly all of his former comrades, becoming a true monster. In an attempt to wipe out every last Jedi, Anakin hunted down his previous mentor and his wife, with child, stowed aboard his transport. Once he found his target, his mentor tried to reason with him but it was no use. His wife appeared and tried to stop Anakin and he nearly strangled her before casting her aside. That confrontation with his mentor led to the loss of Anakin’s legs and most of his skin in lava burns. 

Plot Point #2: Anakin couldn’t control the monster he’d become, and it cost him everything.

Not long after, his wife, who had survived the strangling, went into labor but was too weak to survive it. She gave birth to twins then died, unable to even draw breath.

Plot Point #3: Anakin’s dreams became reality even though he took every step to avoid it.

In all of Anakin’s striving to save his wife, he ended up being the cause of her death. The truth is, she would not have died in childbirth had he not taken the steps he did to ensure that she wouldn’t. It was as if he saw a possible future and then feared the only way to change it was to do the opposite of what he was currently. The only way to bring about a different reality is to completely reverse the way you are living. He chose a path that was the oposite of who he was in the hopes that it would save his wife, in reality it condemned her.

Had he not tried to save her, she would not have lived. Actions, even good intended ones, have consequences, especially when those actions involve known evil. Anakin had the choice to take or spare Palpatine’s life and he spared it. He brought about the destruction of himself, his wife, and the country he loved by doing what he knew was wrong for selfish reasons without consulting anyone outside of himself.

Pride cometh before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And great was the fall of him, he single handedly wrecked his family and an entire Union Government. Lessons can be learned from movie character’s mistakes, this one is not the least of good examples.

Know that you will be held accountable for your actions, and there is always a price to pay for doing wrong and siding with evil.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

Heroes Have It Bad

Through the years, great comic writers like Stan Lee, Jerry Siegel, and Bob Kane have immortalized the characters of their stories. Names like Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Hulk, Ironman, Captain America, and the Fantastic Four are household names in America today. There is a common bond between these superheroes that is fascinating. Though most people will tell you they are all totally different, they are mostly the same. I’ll not make your decision for you, rather I am going to send these characters through a qualification test and you can see for yourself how much they are or are not alike.The first category is family. What kind of family did these super humans grow up into, you’d be surprised how much they are alike in his category.

Fatherless:

Superman ✔️

Batman ✔️

Spiderman ✔️

Ironman ✔️

Hulk

Captain America

Wolverine ✔️

Mister Fantastic ✔️

Invisible Woman ✔️

Human Torch ✔️

Thor ✔️

As you can see, the most popular superheroes here have no parents. Hulk and Captain America are the exceptions, though Captain America lost his parents by outliving them when he was frozen for 80 years, and Hulk, if you go by the original movies, killed his Dad. Superhero’s just have it rough.

How about personal life? How many superheroes died themselves and then were brought back to life?

Dead and Resurected:

Flash 

Green Lantern

Superman

Green Lantern(died twice)

Ant-Man

Bird-Man

Captain America

Human Torch

Ironman

Spiderman 

Thor

And there are many many others, but these are the most famous, the most popular. Think about this, these are super heroes, most of which are super humans, whose goal in life is to save the world, or in most cases, their city. The most undervalued, under-appreciated, most hated of all people by most of the people they save. They are run ragged having to constantly save helpless people who show no gratitude.

Then, they die and its all over. All of the hate, all of the pain, all of the trouble they’ve been through to save the world, it’s finally over. They are at peace, they can rest. Then, someone brings them back. I can just hear them now.

What! No! I don’t want to come back, those people hate me. I can’t live a normal life! Don’t bring me back. Please!

Superheroes really do have it rough.

What about quality of life? Well, superheroes get to live the same scenario over and over and over again, most times the exact plot. It’s a monotonous life. They fight the villain, they save the town, no one knows they were in danger. The hero probably gets bored 9 days out of 10.

Every now and again the superhero will get the girl, but even that’s not a given. They are guaranteed no pleasure in life, only purpose yet still these heroes live and die, then live again… Then die again, for what?

Their friends also seem to have an astonishingly high mortality rate. Even some of the girlfriend’s of these heroes don’t last very long, Batman and Spider-Man can attest to that. And it isn’t as if this is “Tangled”, where a magic teardrop can bring people back to life. Most everyone, except the heroes themselves, gets one death and never comes back.

This isn’t just limited to superheroes, lots of fantasy characters are messed up. And the award for most dysfunctional family in fantasy goes to… Drum roll please: the Skywalker family.

Think about it, Anakin kills his wife and essentially orphans two children, Luke kisses his twin sister and they both are fighting against their father for the whole series, Anakin, who is Darth Vader kills his son’s mentor and father-figure then kills his mentor and ends up dying in the end anyway. I’d love to expound more on how this family simply doesn’t work, but you get the point. Luke, who ends up being the hero, looses his dad, looses the girl, which is a good thing because she was his sister to begin with, and they all live happily ever after? Well, you’ll have to wait for “Force Awakens” to find that out.

Heroes really have it bad. But maybe it’s not the job of the hero to win for himself. Maybe his only concern is others. A hero is servant, a hero lays down his life for others, a hero loves without condition, a hero does what’s right, no matter the cost.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist