Cabur Senaar wrote: It is understandable that anyone might feel uncomfortable with someone else speaking on their behalf. Depending on if, or how, you know the individuals that were chosen to do the speaking, it is also understandable that your confidence would wax or wane.
There are Jedi I admire and Jedi I do not. True of us all. No one is going to be entirely happy with what comes out in the movie. Not even the people in the movie. Such is life. Perhaps all of us would have put together a different Jedi dream team for the perfect documentary, but that wouldn’t have been an honest depiction of us. Our best and brightest are not, in general, the loudest and easiest to see. That’s a truth about us that we could stand to confront as well.
And there will be a small group of people for whom this movie is a turning point. The right message will show up at the right time and, bam. Life changed. While this group might appear large when compared to our community as a whole, it won’t be a blip for the culture at large.
There will be a brief swell of interest, people will show up here and there in what will appear at the time to be droves, and most of them will never return because they lose interest or sought us out under some misconception. It will be similar, in some respects, to what happened when Episode VII came out.
The film was a snapshot: one moment from a specific angle. Anyone who expects it to tell the whole story is being silly. But it will tell a story. And that story will speak to your experience or it won’t. Many stories played out that weekend. I’m quite certain not all of it was even filmed, let alone made the final cut.
And, in pretty short order, new folk will meet the people in the movie and see if they measure up to their portrayals. And, shortly after that, things will settle into the new normal, which will probably resemble the old normal in many ways.
We are a community given to a certain amount of drama. Many things feel like tidal shifts to us, despite our best efforts as individuals. In a year or so, this will just be another thing that happened.
To be clear, I’m looking forward to the movie. I suspect there will be both cheering and jeering at what comes up. Part of me hopes that the only part of me in the movie was the part that showed up in the trailer. But it doesn’t matter much. There is nothing to be done and no reason to invest energy in things that can’t be changed. We’ll just deal with it when it comes. No amount of gnashing of teeth will make anything easier. You’re entitled to your feelings, but you should consider whether or not they are helping. Argument doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere.
Better to practice equanimity.
