Life Day

     On this day in 1978, the Star Wars Holiday Special aired. I, therefore, thought it appropriate to put my own artistic spin on Ackmena, the bartender from the infamous television special, who was played by the great Bea Arthur and (on a personal note) my wife bounded as when when we visited Oga's Cantina earlier this year. 

     I actually really like the Star Wars Holiday Special. Not because it's good, (it's definitely NOT GOOD) but because it helps me keep a little perspective. The original Star Wars was a surprise hit. No movie had ever been that big of a success and after it was over, everyone was clamoring to get more of it in any way they could. Thus the Holiday Special was born! The whole thing centered on an idea of George Lucas' to tell an entire story just about Wookiees and... it wasn't good. Not even a little bit. Two years later, however, we got The Empire Strikes Back which, in my opinion, is the greatest Star Wars film ever made!

     You see, sometimes... a LOT of times, Star Wars is bad. It's been this way since the very beginning. For every A New Hope, we may get a Holiday Special. For every "Mortis Trilogy" we'll get... The One Where Jar Jar Has a Girlfriend? Sometimes Andor. Sometimes Lizzo. This is just the ebb and flow that is Star Wars. If there's one central theme to the entire franchise it's that no matter how bad things get, there's always hope, and the Holiday Special reminds me of that.

     People didn't really have anything good to say about it back when it aired, but I doubt they lost their minds in a fit of rage and exclaimed, "Star Wars is dead!" They probably didn't worry about it and just tried to have fun. And to quote me some Dickens, "may that be truly said of us, and all of us!"

Happy Life Day, everyone!