Rev(Dr) Cynthia Ramirez Lindenmeyer From the Pulpit, Omaha World Herald, Dec 27, 2020
The Mandalorian unites us Exiles of the Pandemic, barred from sacramental rituals, pilgrimages, and last rites, to longing for a world where love and peace loom on a nearby horizon. "This is the way" conjures a quest for an honorable system endemic of loyalty and trust. Yet, experienced distrust of institutional creeds characteristic of religion, white supremacy and politics obstruct total surrender to possibly embracing hope as another calendar year passes.
Connecting fictional and present-day realities, Saturn and Jupiter's cosmic astrological alignment transpires with the winter solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and the ultimate Great Conjunction between Master Luke and Baby Yoda. The last Great Conjunction visible to humanity occurred during the reign of Genghis Khan in 1226, not a stellar time for the Mongol Emperor's forty million massacred. Moff Gideon, the Galactic Empire's fictional leader, may symbolize a modern-day Khan, also mirroring the Christian character King Herod who seeks to kill Baby Jesus. Yes, we live in an epic tragic time of economic, political, and racial pandemics overshadowed by the global epidemic claiming the lives of nearly two million souls worldwide.
Whether in the illusionary Star Wars universe, or current COVID reality, humanity's one constant is the desire to survive and obtain power. And while those two aspirations clash, the true heroines and heroes arise using the superpower of love with which we are all born, exemplified by our exhausted hospital workers. Love repels the dark forces in the fictional world, and love can help redefine our agonizing reality. May the year 2021 resolve our quest to love one another.
