STARS WARS (A New Hope) was released just before my son was born; Episode III was released just before my son's wedding. It's been a roller coaster ride in between.

I first began this diary to counteract the "meltdown" effect of my son's marriage--an unexpected meltdown considering my joy seeing him and his new bride together.
However, I realized that I suffered a loss, as well.

At some point I will include all of this diary, but in light of April 18 being declared "Obi-Wan Kenobi" day I will enter the last bit, written July 2005.

"So now I explain why Obi-Wan Kenobi has become my favorite character, hands down. He has a journey with which I can identify. Because of the way that George Lucas presented his story, you are not introduced to this character until he is at the end of his life (which we do not know at the beginning). We do not find out much about him. He uses the name 'Ben Kenobi.' He is the wise mentor, but we (Luke) do/does not understand how he knows what he knows. How can he know how to disable the tractor beam? We only get a glimpse of his abilities when he pulls out his light saber in the cantina. Soon after, he sacrifices his life (returns to the Force) in order to save Luke's mission.
Later (slowly) we begin to undertand: Obi-Wan, through the Force, begins to instruct Luke. He sends him to Yoda. Only later, in Episode III, do we know that Obi-Wan and Yoda were the only Jedi (presumably) to survive the purge initiated by Chancellor/Sith Lord/Palpatine. Obi-Wan delivers baby Luke to Owen and Beru on Tatooine, then spends the next 19 years watching over him, waiting for the moment that would describe the return of 'the Force' to the Empire. When he had to destroy his best friend, Anakin Skywalker, he was crushed; then he has to sacrifice himself to Darth Vader to save Darth Vader's (unknown) son. What a cruel irony."