The Lessons of the Past

"We are who they grow beyond." — Yoda, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"


If you haven't yet seen "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," you might want to skip this post until you do. (SPOILERS BELOW).

There is a lot to digest in the new "Star Wars," and I'll have a full review later in the week. But for now, there's some ideas I've been mulling on since seeing it (twice). The biggest of which is what the movie says about the past.

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil) is reluctant to train Rey (Daisy Ridley). He's suffered failures in his life and he doesn't think he can be who she needs. Master Yoda, one last time, appears to set Luke on the right path. He tells him that remembering and honoring the past is good, being a slave to it isn't. Holding on to a dream or vision of what was can prevent you from moving forward. And you don't have to be perfect to be a teacher.

He leaves Luke with this wisdom, "We are who they grow beyond." It's a powerful line and one that's stuck with me. A lot of the film, in fact, is about the past and how it leads to the future. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) wants to "kill" the past, to let it go, to move on and start over. He doesn't want to hold on to anything.

Rey wants to learn about the past. She seeks out Luke for training and squirrels away the ancient Jedi texts for reference. She knows the past is important, but she's not bound to it.

Luke sees the past for what it is. I thought that was an interesting take. The Jedi are revered, and some would say rightly so, but he points out theirs is a history of failure. The Jedi failed to hold the Republic together. Obi-Wan failed in training Anakin, who became Darth Vader. And Luke failed with Ben Solo, who became Kylo Ren.

He takes failure for weakness; a weakness that makes him unworthy. Instead, Yoda points out that a good teacher passes on their strengths and gifts, but also the lessons learned from their weaknesses. I thought that was beautiful.

Sometimes, as a people, we struggle with romanticizing the past. There is a moment in another movie, "Watchmen," that reminded me of this. Sometimes we romanticize the past to the point that we gloss over failures or flaws, and that isn't healthy. The Silk Spectre, nearing the end of her journey, was one that saw the past through those rose-colored glasses to the detriment of the present and the future. She was, quite literally, stuck in the past.

At one point, she tells her daughter, "I'm 67 years old. Every day, the future looks a little bit darker. But the past... even the grimy parts of it... keep on getting brighter."

Luke almost has the opposite problem, the flaws of the past overshadow his hope for the future. Both views of the past are flawed in their own way, as is Kylo's position that the past should be forgotten.

It's interesting that "The Last Jedi" seeks to fuse a middle path with Rey. Hence Yoda's advice. The American dream, for most parents, is that the next generation, their children and grandchildren, would do better and have better than them. We see that often in terms of education, jobs, etc. We are who they grow beyond. Yoda, in his way, encapsulates the hope of parents, teachers, and mentors for the future. And he does it beautifully.

It's a final lesson Luke seems to heed, and one that I hope we see Rey realize in the next installment. I would like to believe that after 40-plus years and nine films there is hope at the end of the Skywalker saga.