"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
- Voltaire
We all want to find something that fits just right. Everyone loves when you find that special person that makes you feel like everything is right in the universe. Or it could be a movie... one that you go in with geek dreams of fun and wind up leaving the theater shaking your head at the experience you just had. Then there is the theme park, Disneyland in particular, but it could be another one if you like... the idea of walking through the gate, past the berm and with each passing step down Main Street U.S.A. you actual feel like you're in a time machine. Everytime your foot hits the pavement you're a bit younger. Slowly going back to that way you felt as a child. That feeling that it's as it always was... perfect.
Such is the case with what every human strives for but never quite finds. We all tend to settle for things or have to come to terms and accept what they are. Let's face it, we're all human and therefore all imperfect. Usually the nostalgia that we associate with our childhood is usually the filter that makes whatever we remember as a kid seem so right. When we tend to look at it years later we tend to notice faults that we may have overlooked or not even have been aware of before.
When it comes to Disney(the man himself), Disneyland or yes, even Star Wars we have to accept this. Nothing we desire really ever winds up being as good as we want or great as we remember. As much as I love Walt Disney, the man had his faults. And although many of us enjoy Disneyland, if you were go back to there fifty years ago there would be a large amount of entertainmen/attractions/theming that would seem downright bland or dare I say... boring. Not everything is everyone's cup of tea. I know friends that have ridden the new "Nemo Subs" ride and liked it, but not loved it. During the ride as the Sub goes around toward the waterfall they were looking over going "is this all there is to it?". They didn't ride it before it closed down or they would have really been disappointed. Even the classic "It's A Small World" doesn't play well with everyone. It's not my favorite ride, but that's Ok. My best friends sister thinks the world of it... and that's fine. It is what it is. There are many things we look back upon with colored memories. Memories are precious, but they shouldn't color our perspective and make us not accept what we have for the unattainable goal of what we desire.
This goes for Star Wars as much as it does anything with Disney or just about everything else in life we hold value. As much as Star Wars is part of my childhood, even the original films are far from perfection. We all have to realize that the things we love in life are far from perfect. Nothing in life is as wonderful as our minds make us believe.
The point is that we still believe.
