Star Words

Open minded

centrist soldier

Buddhist monk

lightsaber holder

bolder than banthas

badder than Boba

demonstrating the relationship

of power and order

for the win the righteous

embracing the fact

that reacting to anger and hate

is tantamount to creating ill-fate

and the disturbance that evil creates

affects all of the people who sate

their latent thirst for mental mastery

at the academy

all scholarly

wax on wax off

3 ft. green Myagi

Rat-tailed karate kids and limited lasers

interacting with the masters of the force in three phases

Padawan, Apprentice, and Master in sequence

delineating all those waiting into leveled obedience

giving credence to the council to decide their place and who'll

be doling baddass justice like the Master Mace Windu.

In lieu of straight B.A.M.F. works

Jedi sometimes function as interim peace clerks

engaging a hostile Trade Federation with a pacifist's hand

until negotiations go south then they take a stand.

Float like Jango

and sting like Wedge

hop on Slave II and walk the edge

of the light and dark sides

perforce its the force of course

of course

endorse Endor's as your forest moon of choice

enforce your voice in singing the song

of the life galactic

the spastic

free-form hum of the spheres

structure and chaos interacting as peers

weird though it may seem

midi-chlorians live in you

allowing you the power

to master all in your venue

all that you think

you can create

premeditate and then improvise

contemplate and conceptualize

reiterate and extemporize

levitate and eviscerate

the Gungan that cracks wise

deflect thousands of blaster bolts as a reflex

dismantle AT-ATs

using honor as pretext

demolish droidekas as they try to attack you

disable their shields

fuck Gunray and Haako.

If you've got a bad feeling

Kick-it like Wicket

Up in some tree

'til our senses deceive us

Making 'em wheeze like Grievous

leave us alone as we commune with the force

sensing disturbances

gaining pre-cognitions

premonitions of your soon-to-be

the life roads you'll stroll-down

the hard foes you'll throw down

the general low down on your future tense-

ity your propensity for the events we'll see

Drop this blasé ennui

and give the now a goodbye kiss.

Dagobah is where you free your mind

Yoda's piggy-back ride will help decide

your power penchant

your force protection

the direction you'll choose

be it light or dark

it'll spark your humble beginnings

mark each yarn the green one's spinning

winning the contest

for wisest most oblique alien mentor

helping generations of Jedi find their center

Enter the Rancor with Fists of Fury

Inter-galactic inter-planetary far-away Bruce lee

you'll see the hour

you'll feel the power

you'll pick a side and ride hard when lesser ones cower

we'll hear the stories

we'll know whether the score is

Jedi in the lead or Sith coming up owning

you'll grasp instant

you'll seize the moment

attack in a second with confidence and own it.

Do or do not there is no try

reach your mind into the swamp

and make that x-wing fly.

Hyggelig and Neshama

My dad's mother, my Farmor, asks me to try and say a few Danish test words

“gulerulod” carrott, and “Rødgrød med fløde” berries and cream.

I stumble over the glottal “ær”, but come pretty close.

She loves me, so she smiles, chuckles heartily, then kisses me on the forehead,

but her eyes are sad.

Grandma, my mother's mother, insists that I be bar mitvah'd,

“Your Grandpa would've wanted it”

she says in her thick, half-Slavic/half-yiddish-new yorker cadence.

Regardless, I stand firm,

“I don't think it'd be right”... “I never really went to schul and I'd feel like a poser”.

My grandmother turns to my mom and asks her, in Yidd-laden English, what a “poser” is.

“You're a Jew.” she states, turning back to me. Her face smiling,

but her eyes voicing the same sorrow as her Danish counterpart.

I am Erik Olsen – Dane: first Viking, then Sailor, then Soldier/Translator/Accountant.

I am Humlizer – Jew: first Wanderer, then Farmer, then Tailor/Cab-driver/Translator.

Now I am a Student.

Can I be all of these people? Can I honor these varied aspects of my ancestry without turning my family's culture into fast food?

The Hebrew word “Neshama” roughly translates to “Soul” but in another use of it, it is viewed as the goodness of a person, the quantity of goodness housed within everyone.

I don't speak Hebrew or Yiddish.

The Danish word, “hyggelig” doesn't translate to English, but it connotes a coziness, a good-times-with-friends-and-family sort of vibe. The picture that comes to my mind is the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings, singing songs and drinking together.

I don't speak Danish either.

I don't speak any of the languages of my ancestors. I don't know their culture.

But I do understand Hyggelig and Neshama.

My parents were raised in Danish and Yiddish.

They learned to sound like Americans from the other kids.

My parents raised me in English.

Taught me to speak my language,

but think in theirs.