What Star Wars Teaches Us About Identity

The sequel trilogy of Star Wars is divisive among fans, especially the condition we find Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. Whether you like Luke’s character development or not, there’s several lessons we can learn from it, one of which deals with the concept of identity. This lesson is further enhanced by contrasting Luke’s experience with that of Anakin Skywalker’s padawan, Ahsoka Tano, from the TV series The Clone Wars.

After helping to bring his father back from the Dark Side, and the Empire is defeated, Luke Skywalker set about rebuilding the Jedi Order. One of his pupils was Leia and Han’s son, Ben. Ben became tempted by the Dark Side, and Luke feared what that might mean for his new fledgling Jedi Order. One night, during a moment of fear and weakness, Luke entered Ben’s quarters and ignited his lightsaber. Luke quickly came to himself, and realized he was allowing his fear to control his actions. If his father could turn away from the Dark Side after being entrenched in it for decades, then surely his nephew could be persuaded not to go down that path. But Ben woke up and saw his uncle standing over him with a lightsaber, and the damage was done. Ben made his turn to the Dark Side and destroyed everything Luke had worked to build. Luke exiled himself for his failure, and became isolated from everyone he knew and loved.

Luke had become wrapped up in his identity of being a Jedi and his work of re-establishing the Jedi Order. So when the new Order fell, so did Luke. He didn't have any other sense of self to fall back on.

In contrast, while being a Jedi was all Ahsoka Tano had known her whole life, it wasn't her entire identity. As a Jedi, Ahsoka was always a person who went out of her way to help others, even if the Jedi Council looked down on it. When she was expelled from the Jedi Order after being framed for a crime she didn't commit, her identity as someone who helped others in need remained the same. Everything we see her do from then on is entirely in pursuit of serving and helping people. Her identity transcended her role as a member of the Jedi Order.

As the news of large scale layoffs have been so prevalent over the last few months, we are reminded that jobs are only temporary. They can end at any time for any number of reasons, and if our identity is tied to our job, then we lose ourselves once the job is through. Our identity should be tied to our personal values regardless of where we are employed. That way we can continue to push forward, even if we experience a layoff (like Ahsoka) or our company goes under (like Luke).

Experiments:

Things I'm working on to improve my productivity and personal knowledge management practices

I mentioned in my newsletter a couple weeks ago that I was turning the file explorer off in Obsidian as a way of getting myself to stop worrying about how things were organized and actually use the information I'm collecting. I got to admit, it's been hard fighting my natural inclination to always be organizing. My notes have been much messier, and my perfectionist mind has difficulty with that. However, I've found this messiness has been getting me to look more at the content of my notes rather than the meta data. It has allowed me space to discover interesting insights I don't think I would've seen otherwise. I feel my focus is shifting to things of greater importance, and I like the direction I'm heading.

What I'm Reading / Watching / Listening to:

Resources and ideas from others to explore

Video: Plan Your Entire Year with a Year at a Glance Page
I often get to the end of a year and realize I didn't accomplish even half of the things I wanted to. The Year at a Glance spread described in this video by the creator of the Bullet Journal, Ryder Carroll, seems like a good way to tentatively schedule when I'll work on my various projects throughout the year. I'm about to start a new Bullet Journal as my current one is almost full, and I'll be including this Year at a Glance spread in an effort to get the many projects I have planned for CreaDev Labs done before we reach 2024 (which is only 10 months away already!)

Video: If I Started a YouTube Channel in 2023, I'd Do This
One of my big projects for the year is getting a YouTube channel going. I really like the iterative approach described in this video, and I already have many ideas and scripts for videos to get started on. The biggest thing I'm waiting on is the construction on my filming space to be completed. I'm hoping you'll start seeing videos posted on the CreaDev Labs YouTube channel by April 2023!

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