I certainly do not want to gain a reputation as a man-basher! I like men- very much in fact. So, here's a tribute to a couple of the greatest men in this galaxy and the next and the relationship they have with their sisters.

I promise this is about Luke & Leia, but I have to share the personal standpoint I am coming from:

I love my brother. I adore him. But I have only come to feel this way recently. See, our relationship has always been extremely distant (not going to bore you w/ details on this one), but at the same time, I've always felt a longing to be with him and to be accepted by him. Exactly one year ago, he took off to experience life in a foreign country. He's an absolute genius- he started learning the language only 5 or 6 months before leaving and was completely fine. Then, I took a leap of faith and bought a plane ticket to visit him for 3 weeks over Christmas. Let me tell you, I was full of fear during that 9 & 1/2 hour flight. Not because of flying, or that fact that I was traveling to a foreign country on my own, but because I wasn't sure how my brother really felt about me coming. I'll skip the details, but we actually became friends during that time. When the time came for me to leave, I could hardly bear it. We didn't just say good bye. We said, "I love you." I can't remember the last time we said that to each other. As I walked down the terminal, I kept thinking about how I really did love him, and that somehow, I always have.

It's no secret that I've always felt some connection with Leia, but now I feel that relation even stronger. I feel as if I have some sort of idea of what she meant when she said to Luke, "I know. Somehow, I've always known." That has always seemed like a strange line to me. How could she have always known, yet not realized the connection after spending so much time with Luke? How could she not realize after kissing him?!?!?!? I'm sure that had to feel at least slightly wrong...

It's like the pieces finally fit together. You know when you're putting together a big jigsaw puzzle and you see an empty place? You look at it and determine the qualities the missing piece must have- one of these curves here, and a little bit of that light blue color in the corner....But even with these qualities in mind, the piece doesn't always jump out at you. Once you find the piece, however, you think, "Oh! Of course. That's the one." Something was missing from Leia's life and she knew it was missing, she just didn't realize it was a Luke-shaped hole until he told her.

Like me, Leia had gotten along fine without her brother, but when he finally did appear, she clung to him with all the love she could and figured out that he was what she was searching for all along. He began to change the way she looked at the past, the present, and most importantly the future. The question is, what would have happened if they had figured out their relationship sooner? Would it have benefitted the galaxy or did the success of the Rebellion depend on their unique circumstance? Was it the way of the Force that they stayed apart or was it the Dark Side that concealed their connection?

Forcefully,
JP