At our June 30th meeting, we were transported to a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, as Don, wearing a full Jedi costume, looked at mental health through the eyes of a Jedi.

When we take a step back and really look at Star Wars, we find the George Lucas had done his homework.  All the fun and explosions had been built on a chassis that carried so much more.  The further we got into Star Wars, the more we heard of this thing called “The Force”.  “The Force” is really a combination of many religions, and myths, with a large dose of historical values. It is storytelling built on a well thought out, rich moral code.  

When we get to the second movie, we are introduced to the most unlikely of great warriors, Yoda.  But Yoda is much more than a warrior, he is the moral center of the story.  He is the philosopher, the high priest, the unassuming core of what makes Star Wars tick.  We found Yoda teaches many of the same things we talk about here every Thursday night. Things like self confidence, fear, failure, choice, darkness, the future, the force, your role in the world, and even the value of community.

Don then took us through about 20 of Yoda’s most famous quotes and analyzed them based on how they apply to mental health, and specifically, us.

While many of the quotes brought us thoughtful and sometimes fairly dark subjects, there was also the story of the Ewok and Jawa acted out with Star Wars Build a Bears with help from everyone in attendance!  The story illustrated Yoda’s quote “Do or do not, there is no try”, featuring the two fearsome Sith lords in pool floaties and sun glasses!   Hard to explain in a blog, you just had to be there.