May The Fourth Be With You…
Yes — you all knew this. I am a Geek. Card-Carrying. I adore all things Sci-Fi. Because Escaping From Reality is an amazing thing. Everyone should do it. Somehow — some way. Early in Life, I discovered books. And the best books always had wizards, dragons, and/or space ships.
Shortly thereafter, I discovered movies. And the rest, as they say, is history.
So it wasn’t just by accident that when I grew up and became an OR nurse — I would end up working for Darth Vader.
The Universe had a plan for me all along.
As we all know — now — Darth got a bad rap. Life dealt him a bad hand (yes, that pun was intentional because My Darth is a nurse). But in the end — we see Darth still had his own heart under all the armor and still would do The Right Thing when push came to shove and one of His Own was on the chopping block.
And that — in a nutshell — clearly was who My Darth was. Ironically — she is the one who proclaimed herself Darth Vader and would answer her phone that way. All the other team leaders in the department referred to her as Darth. We — her nurses — also called her Darth. To her face — with much affection. And she — in turn — helped us become Storm Troopers. A Strong, Fierce, Loyal Fighting Force.
We Storm Troopers took care of each other on the battlefield and never quite did trust her completely. Which was another excellent lesson she taught us. Management will always do what they need to do. Management works for The Dark Side — so always keep that in mind. Then every so often — her heart would show and we would understand her humanity was still in there under the armor. Much to everyone’s surprise and wonder.
But not me. I loved Darth. I understood her. And I knew — she was me. My Storm Trooper uniform had the best armor I could find — layer upon layer piled up over years. Put there to protect My Heart and My Humanity.
As I look back at my career — I am thankful for all the lessons I learned and the friends I made during my time with The Storm Troopers. I would never want to return to those days. But this is precisely what Our Lives are for. To learn and grow from the people who are here to teach us.
Darth retired awhile ago. She hung up her lightsaber and went on to find a peaceful place to dwell where she could take off her armor and be who she was before. Who she always was in her heart.
And truly — isn’t that all any of us can hope for after The Battle Of Life has declared an armistice? The day when it doesn’t matter anymore if you are a Storm Trooper or a Rebel — because all the masks — all the uniforms — all the costumes have finally come off and all the lightsabers are quiet.
We become simply Human again.
Namaste.
