How We Create Our Own Lightsabers

The newest addition to my writing desk: Lego Lightsabers.

I have the blue on top of the red, of course.

What Gen Xer didn't pretend they were playing with lightsabers countless times as a kid?  Anytime a roll of wrapping paper got used up at my house in the 1980s, all I had to do was grab one of my blue Mr. Sketch scented watercolor markers and color 80% of the cardboard tube until the marker made the whole room smell like blueberries.

According to the Star Wars Wikia, "Blue indicated a Jedi Guardian, a Jedi who used the Force on a more physical level.  Green indicated a Jedi Consular, a Jedi who preferred to reflect on the mysteries of the Force and fight the dark side at its heart.  Yellow indicated a Jedi Sentinel, a Jedi who honed their skills in a balance of combat and scholarly pursuits."

In the Star Wars world, as you build your own light saber, your personality gets somewhat infused into it and even affects the color, which is actually pretty cool to think about.  When it comes to the art we create, the work we do of our lives, the fighting we do for good in this world, our personalities are part of what colors it. Those colors are our legacy - both individually, and also collectively as a generation.

I'm grateful for those who use their platforms not for personal attention, but to help others - whether it's an acceptance speech at the Oscars, or an entire book. Find a cause you believe in, one that helps those in the world who are struggling, one that protects those who cannot protect themselves, and fight for it.

"You use your heart as a weapon and it hurts like heaven."   -Coldplay 

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(c) 2015 - photo and writing by Chloe Koffas

The Breakfast Club

February 15, 1985 - 30 years ago - The Breakfast Club came out in theaters.  I was in elementary school at the time and didn't see this Brat Pack film until high school.  I graduated ten years later, but the issues of the movie still existed then, just as they still do now.  What the film teaches us is that we have more in common with each other than we often initially realize, and that we all struggle with isolation, and pressure, and trying to be true to ourselves.  Being human means having angst, being a teenager gives you an extra dose of it.  John Hughes wrote/produced/directed what is considered one of the best high school movies of all time, and it has a certain timelessness to it.  Even their clothes are somehow timeless.

The flashback edition which I hope to see someday has background commentary by the actors.

Photo from Amazon - link below:

Breakfast Club Flashback Edition

This is considered by many to be the quintessential movie of Generation X.  One of the many things I love about my generation is that we are known for breaking the mold in which we found ourselves, for being the first generation to be open to others even if they came from a very different background, for being people who could hang out in multiple social circles that were all very different from each other.

From the end of the movie, in an essay/letter written to their principal is the movie's most well-loved quote: 

"You see us as you want to see us.  In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.  But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal..."  -The Breakfast Club

from wanelo.com 

Now that 30 years have gone by, and we are now the age of the adults in the movie, this is a reminder to us of how to treat our own kids, of how to treat the younger generation in general so that they don't see us the way the kids in the movie saw the older generation.  As we grow older and become the "powers that be" it's good to remember the angst that those older than us once gave us, and to not make the same mistakes.  

"And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultation.  They're quite aware of what they're going through."   

-David Bowie 

"To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."  

-Voltaire

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(c) 2015 - by Chloe Koffas