*Disclaimer: This blog will have religious references. If you get quesy over such things you may want to go elsewhere. I just got new carpets here. It is not meant as a sermon or give a lesson unless it does. It is nothing more than a comparison of stories. Take it as you will.*

If anyone has made a blog of this comparison, I'm not aware of it or at least have no memory of it. Which is essentially the same thing. I was reading on lunch and had several thoughts come to me while sitting there. I know, its amazing huh? There they were never the less. This being one of them I'm putting it before you. I've love parables. They are non-judgmental. A morality story with no condemnation. It is up to the one listening to the story to figure out how it applies to them. I have always felt them to be the heart and soul of the new testament and Jesus' teachings. It is not the only place we can find them however. Parables have been used by many if not all the spiritual masters to convey their teachings.

One of the most famous of these is the story of the Prodigal Son. I would think everyone is familiar with it but if not here is a quick synopsis. A man gives his sons their inheritance. One uses it wisely and stays to work on the land of his father. The other leaves and squanders his money on gambling and lasciviousness. Years of living in poverty pass and he remembers all he had at home. He swallows his pride and decides to return. Upon his return his father sees him and runs and embraces him. He orders his servants to prepare a feast of the finest he had. His brother not understanding questions his fathers actions for one who was so undeserving of his love. The father tells the faithful son "Look this is my son, your brother who was lost and now he is found!"

One could make the argument that the story of Darth Plageious the Wise was a parable of sorts but outside of that parables are not used in the saga. The Jedi never used any in their teachings that I'm aware. Though the saga is in and of itself a parable. A new take on the Prodigal Son. Lucas has said that he intended the saga to be the fall and redemption of Anakin. The father is representative of three things in the saga; Luke, the Jedi, and the Force (the trinity?). Anakin leaves the order and turns his back on everything he has been fortunate enough to be given. He suffers horribly for his selfishness. Living in misery for years within a prison of his own making. Finally a glimmer of the love he once possessed enters his psyche. He swallows his pride and returns home to the loving embrace of his father (Trinity remember). In the last scene of ROTJ one can hear the force say "Look this is my son who was lost, and now he is found!" The prodigal son had finally returned,
The return of the Jedi.

MTFBWY