![\"Chewie-Luke-Leia-and-Han-han-luke-and-leia-24048896-1600-1121\"](\"http:\/\/www.darelparker.com\/dp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Chewie-Luke-Leia-and-Han-han-luke-and-leia-24048896-1600-1121.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I remember watching old black and white reruns of Superman when I was a kid. \u00a0The Lone Ranger and Zorro too. \u00a0Batman was a favorite, and of course, Saturday mornings meant The Super Friends. \u00a0As a child growing up in the \u201870s, these were the characters who embodied the idea of heroism for me and most of my friends. \u00a0These were the action figures I\u2019d ask for every Christmas and birthday. \u00a0When my friends and I played outside, they are who we pretended to be. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then, in 1977, everything changed. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nothing in my childhood had ever sparked my imagination like Star Wars. \u00a0The concept of planets and even whole star systems at war was something I had never comprehended. \u00a0Something of that magnitude is not what typically appeals to a child. \u00a0But somehow I got it. \u00a0The story spoke to me. \u00a0It spoke to a lot of people. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some might wonder what it was about Star Wars that moved us in a way that no other film had before, or since. \u00a0For some, perhaps it was the nature of science fiction, with lightsaber duels and space battles. \u00a0But for me, and millions of children of my generation, the answer is easy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was the heroes. <\/span><\/p>\n These were the first heroes who truly touched our hearts. \u00a0As children, they were the first characters we had known who possessed real depth and emotion. \u00a0They appeared to us as real people, flawed and conflicted; lost but brave. \u00a0They were human. \u00a0They were characters we wanted to be like. \u00a0They were people we wanted to be. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Luke Skywalker was young and naive, and ready to jump head-first into a war he knew almost nothing about. <\/span><\/p>\n Han Solo was a gambler, and an opportunist, who finally found his place in the universe, fighting alongside some very unlikely friends. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And then there was Princess Leia. \u00a0For the girls of my generation, Princess Leia was a beacon of light. \u00a0Far from a damsel in distress, Princess Leia never needed to be rescued. \u00a0She was a fighter. \u00a0She was a leader. \u00a0She was a role model. \u00a0Princess Leia was every bit as much a hero as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo (and a better shot, too). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These are the heroes we grew up with. \u00a0These are the heroes against whom every other hero would be judged for the rest of our lives. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So when you\u2019re sitting in the theater watching any Star Wars film, and you see the middle-aged couple next to you staring at the big screen with tears running down their cheeks, remember it\u2019s not just the film that\u2019s tugging at their heartstrings. \u00a0It\u2019s forty years of history and mythology that has captured our hearts. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s four decades of love. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"Bookmark](\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/v2\/lg-share-en.gif\")
<\/a>