Seriously. Seeing Star Wars in 1977 caused me to experience the power of a story. I managed to talk my dad into taking me. "Take me to see Star Wars. Please take me, all the other kids have seen it, please take me." "Well, what's it about?" I realize now that no one in the United States could not have known the answer to this question in the summer of 1977. But I gave my convincing answer. "It's about a war, but in the stars!" It worked. Dad took me. I was young enough to be kind of confused, but still entirely consumed by the power of the story. I can tiell that the experience shaped me because the movie dominated how we played all summer and into the fall. And winter and spring. And the next year. Mike thought Darth Vader was totally awesome. Mike probably grew up to like the bad guy wrestlers, er, wrasslers, like Rowdy Ronny Piper. Bart had the completly awesome, life sized model of the death star. It wasn't life sized, in point of fact, but imaginitively, it was at least as big as the moon. I figure any story that shapes the majority of children's play, that is a story with power. So I'm taking the fam to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
If you happen to care, please notice that the Christmas season is full of story. Mary gets some serios news. Joseph, too. Jesus gets some presents. John the Baptist screams at folks in the desert, and they kind of like it. Rudolf lives inn a nightmare north pole, where being different shames his father. (For real, have you watched the 1964 Rudolph movie recently? The north pole is super weird.)
P.S. When The Empire Strikes Back came out, my folks rounded up my younger brother, a cousin and drove us across the Ohio River to a theater in Kentucky. My parents are awesome. When Return of the Jedi came out, my Dad checked me and my two brothers out of school and took us to the 1 p.m. matinee. He didn't tell us he was coming, he just showed up, and BOOM, we are sitting with a tub of popcorn, sharing a jumbo coke and some Goobers. My mom did not even find out about this until four years ago.