I debated whether or not to write something about this. I wasn't sure if it would feel like I was exploiting someone close to me for the sake of Star Wars. After thinking about it, though, I think she'd approve, given how big of a Star Wars fan she is, and how much this all plays into how she herself views the Skywalkers. I guess I just never really thought about it in quite these terms, outside of a 3rd person, psychological perspective, until recently.

Star Wars hasn't changed in the last few months. Well, at least not the film saga. It is as it has been: the story of the shattered Skywalker family

It's the story of a mother and father whose love turned to perceptions of betrayal and their fated separation.

It's the story of two children, born with a mother gone and a father who wouldn't be there to raise them.

It's the story of children raised apart by adoptive, loving parents.

It's the story of children trying to discover their true roots, imagining what those roots might be, and eventually coming to understand both the darkness and the good to be found in that truth when uncovered.

It's about the shattering of bonds of blood and those bonds drawing back together in the end, still not a family of mother, father, and children, but a family with acceptance that their bonds of blood are there.

In the end, it was the story of the Skywalkers.

Early this year, I met a fellow Star Wars fan who quickly became one of my best friends and someone I'm very happy to have met. She's the C-3PO to my R2-D2 (an amusing analogy, given our height differences). Early on, I learned that my friend was adopted. This happened right after she was born, so she never had the chance to get to know her birth mother, birth father, or any potential family members that she might have through either of them on down the line. Instead, she grew up like Luke or Leia, raised by loving, adoptive parents, and, like Luke, wondered what her birth parents might be like.

A whlie back, she had an organization here in the area do a search for both birth parents, eventually discovering basic information from a basic search. (A more thorough search with contact information and all the "big answers," including names, would cost a lot more through this agency and come as a second step.)

She learned that her mother did not want contact, leaving that avenue, much like that for Luke and Leia, closed off. There was, however, a chance with the birth father, who, like Vader, had been searching for his child for decades (albeit out of love, rather than to create a new Sith Apprentice and keep Eeeeevil in the family).

Two months or so ago, I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I have what you might call a Hero Complex. I always try to help where I can, and it's usually when I cross the line in terms of what I can or shoud do. My friend's 25th birthday was approaching and she had her heart set on being able to make contact with her birth father and learn more of the truth about her lineage and blood family by the time she turned 25. That gave her about two months to pull it off . . . only the money wasn't there. A full search through the organization would cost a few hundred dollars, then it would take time to carry out the search, perhaps months. She was saving, but the timing didn't look like it was going to work out.

Well, knowing how important ths was to her, I didn't think twice, as I normally don't when the Hero Complex kicks in (just call me Clark Kent with no powers), and I immediately offered to loan her what she needed. Within a few days, we had the papers submitted to the agency, the money paid, and the search started. They said it could take up to four months . . . two months longer than the wait until her birthday. But it was a start.

That was in April. Last week, my phone rang, and she was on the other line with a simple message: She had talked to her dad, her birth father, for the first time that day. The search had been successful early, and in a whirlwind of phone calls, she learned that she not only had a blood father still out there, but that he was married and she had three half brothers, one half-sister, and a niece, all on that side of the "blood" family. The adopted child in a single-child home was now a member of a broader family, it seemed. And it all came less than a week *before* her 25th birthday. One life goal fulfilled.

Needless to day, I'm ecstatic for her. It has been strange, embarassing to a degree, but also nice to hear all about the situation and how, from their point of view, I'm the one who "made it happen." (I just sort of made it happen earlier than it would have, from my point of view.)

Last night, she met her blood father, his wife, and all three of her half-brothers for the very first time. Today, they left town again, but you could tell that the bonds were there and growing stronger by the moment. I even had the chance to meet them (minus one half-brother) before they left.

Now . . . I had always looked at Star Wars in epic terms, mythological terms, maybe even psychological terms. But I hadn't had the perspective that I had beat me over the head the last couple of months or the last week.

Seeing my friend's elation at learning about her family, how she devours facts left and right and seems like so much has been opened up to her in such a short time . . . how fundamentally her life has changed, even if she doesn't realize it all just yet . . . It gives me a greater understanding, as a fan, of the kind of questions, doubts, imaginings, and musings that Luke and Leia would have grown up with, along with the mixed blessing and the life-altering revelations that the two experience upon learning that Vader was their father, that they are siblings, and, much later, those truths that are revealed through R2-D2's memory banks about their mother. It's been a long time since I've been able to see Luke or Leia as truly sympathetic characters. I certainly do again.

Why? Because someone's life has changed in the last few months and it has been the story of a shattered and reunited family

It's the story of a mother and father whose love was complicated and eventually led to their fated separation.

It's the story of a child, born with a mother gone from the picture and a father who wouldn't be there to raise her, though he wanted to.

It's the story of children (a girl and her half-siblings) raised apart by loving parents, hers adoptive.

It's the story of a child trying to discover her true roots, imagining what those roots might be, and eventually coming to understand both the unfortunate aspects and the extreme good to be found in that truth when uncovered.

It's about the shattering of bonds of blood and those bonds drawing back together in the end, still not a family of birth mother, birth father, and child, but a family with acceptance that their bonds of blood are there.

In the end, it was a story much like that of the Skywalkers, but in truth, this was better. This was real.