When I hear the Star Wars theme and see the text scrolling up and away from me into the stars, it arouses the wonder in me. And because for over three decades I have been rewarded for accepting the reality projected in these stories, I suspend whatever disbelief I encounter. This episode (VIII) has its share of potential distractions in the form of questionable plot points, but if you can silence those interruptions of reason, the film and the story take you –as all worthy stories do–full circle: from your own human experience to an imagined one and back again. The point, of course, is to see what changed in the process.

I hope that enough of the other hundreds of millions of viewers changed as I did. I left the film with a little more Hope for the future, a Hope founded on the next generation: I left the film with one more poignant reminder that unlike very imperfect things (like greed and hate) that abound in the world today, perfect things (like Love and Hope) last and prevail–as long as you make it a priority to share them.

MTFBWY

WRH