"Mommy, I Want You to Play Star Wars"

People often say that they are glad they didn't know their spouses when they were younger, claiming they were probably too nerdy or silly or geeky. My husband claims the opposite; he says that he is glad that I didn't know him, not that he didn't know me. You see, Caleb has this vision of me as a judgy bad-a who would not have liked to be in his presence.

What he does not take into account is that I had major crushes on my fair share of nerds.

At any rate, Caleb's former nerdery has bred my current situation at home. Caleb was a Star Wars geek when he was younger. His family's situation made it possible for Caleb to own every Star Wars book, as well as a vast collection of action figures.

Just as the Force can be genetic, I believe that Star Wars love can be passed down from generation to generation. Jack has been watching the original trilogy recently; though he does not particularly care for the ins and outs of the plot, he becomes transfixed by the battles and the myriad alien races. The main problem that Jack has with the movies is that they portray Luke and Leia as "the good guys." To him, Darth Vader is the end-all-be-all and therefore must be the star of the show. Who cares about boring Skywalker?

We had a few Star Wars toys that we inherited from my grandma, and Jack soon found them to be lacking. Where's Han Solo? Why is our C-3PO only a happy meal toy? Darth Vader is missing his light saber. Whatever were we going to do?

Enter Caleb's teenage obsession.

Caleb called his parents and arranged for them to send a few essentials from his collection; Caleb's dad was kind enough to send all of the collection. Remember when I said that the collection was vast? The UPS box that Caleb's dad sent was 17 pounds. Nearly 20 pounds of Star Wars toys ended up on our doorstep and Jack could not have been happier. Since the box's arrival, all I have been hearing is a chorus of "Mommy, I want you to play Star Wars with me." Even if I have already played "R2-D2 gets beat up by a cast of thousands" for half an hour, it is never enough.

I will admit that I like Star Wars, but my knowledge of character names and spacecraft specifics is lacking in Jack's eyes. There are some roles that a mother can't substitute. Big Ol' Nerd is apparently one of them.