Doughnuts and Cookies

Star Wars has always ignited my imagination.  The epic space opera taking place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away ...

To say it captivated me would be an understatement.  I remember shouting matches on the playground over which Luke Skywalker we would be: the light or the dark version.  Although we didn't realize it at the time, we were choosing between the bright light version (who knew only that he needed to be good), and the conflicted, Jedi version, on the verge of betraying everything as his father had done.  We all wanted to be the black-clad version, of course, clearly missing the intended message.

My son is no different.  He loves Star Wars, and is just as intrigued by the darker-clad versions of characters.  Thanks to the popularity of cosplay, my son met Darth Vader, prompting him to completely geek out, knowing Darth Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, his favorite character.  He also loves the prequels, despite the harsh critique coming from some of the more myopic members of the (supposedly hardcore) fanbase.  When Mark Hamill — Luke Skywalker — tells the fanbase to lay off the prequels, it should count for something.  Regardless of how the often fickle fanbase feels about the prequels, we love them.  They're Star Wars movies, after all, and we frequently watch them as a family.  

On one such evening after watching one of the Star Wars prequels, my wife decided to ask our six-year-old son if he would like to be a Jedi or a Sith.

"I want to be a Jedi!"  He proclaimed, posing with his dinner fork as a stand-in for a lightsaber, "like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi!"

"Are you sure you don't want to be a Sith, like Darth Vader?"  My wife countered, knowing how much my son loves Anakin.  "The Dark side is really cool."

"No."  He insisted.  "I like the Light side.  I want to be a good guy."

"Are you sure?"  My wife asked him playfully.  "The Dark Side has cookies!"

"No!"  He proclaimed angrily.  "The Light Side has doughnuts AND cookies!"

Of course they do.

A few months later, my wife found a meme online that showed an office on Star Wars Day, depicting a storm trooper delivering cookies to cubicles, with the caption, "and you thought we were lying."  During dinner, my wife decided to show my son this indisputable, photographic evidence.  My son gasped audibly and remained speechless for the remainder of dinner, clearly full of thought at this revelation.

They clearly do have cookies!