WHY THERE ACTUALLY IS “TRY”, YODA BABY

So “Baby Yoda” was all over the news recently and while I was not curious enough to “click on a link” (as the kids don’t say), I WAS curious enough to ask my son about it (no, you don’t have to explain, he already did an adequate job).

The idea that Yoda was ever a baby brings up so many questions (none of them urgent enough to compel me to watch the program he is featured on), not least among them:  “What SPECIES is Yoda? And if he was once a baby, doesn’t that mean that he has parents?  Did the race die out , so he was the only one left by the time he met Luke Skywalker? And why on earth (galaxy?) did his theoretical parents teach him that there is no try?”

I am now seriously begging all Star Wars geeks NOT to answer any of my questions because what else will I perseverate on late at night when I can’t sleep?  To be clear, when I call y’all “geeks”, I am not suggesting that I, as a child of the 70’s, was not once captivated by Luke, Leia, Han Solo, et al.  I think I saw Return of the Jedi at least three times in the theater on its first run. 

But the whole “episode” this and “episode” that lost me and now I don’t check in anymore (although I did see The Force Awakens; my big takeaway was that there is NO WAY Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford would have a kid who looked like Adam Driver so—plot twist alert!—maybe Leia was getting some on the side?) but thanks to a handy 21^st Century invention known as the “meme”, I will never be able to forget “adult” (?) Yoda’s advice to “baby” Luke Skywalker:

DO OR DO NOT.  THERE IS NO TRY.

And seriously, how can 4 billion memes be wrong, amiright?

EXCEPT…

There is totally, absolutely a try, Yoda.  So “try” that on for size, old “man” (?)

Now, don’t get me wrong—I have heard about 4 billion people in my (relatively short compared to 4 billion years) lifetime LIE about “trying”, so I can get where Yoda might have some confusion about this.  “Try” is a catch-all word often used by underperformers and excuse-makers, so the fact that it has a bad rap makes sense.  BUT “try” is actually one of the most important things you can do in this world (I can’t speak for a galaxy far, far, away).  Like the ant with the rubber tree plant, you have got to have high hopes in order to “do or do not”.

Why am I feeling so passionately about this (apart from the fact that I need something to think about during the endless hours I lie awake most nights)?  I will tell you why:

I AM THE QUEEN OF TRY.

We don’t even have to have a pageant or a vote or a competition, because nobody else wants the crown.  Because

THE QUEEN OF TRY

might ALSO be known as

THE QUEEN OF FAIL

And THAT does NOT look good on a resume, for sure.

So call off the arm wrestling match, I’ve got this one.

Anyone who really knows me knows that as the

QUEEN OF TRY

EFFORT is my KING!!!!

I literally SWOON over EFFORT, butterflies in my stomach, the whole shebang (as they say, but I am not sure who).

Not to be maudlin, but anyone who knows the remotest thing about me now knows that I have been (cough, cough) SICK for 10 months, going on a year.  And if you do not understand that I have TRY, TRY, TRIED my DAMNDEST to be well again, you DON’T KNOW NUTHIN’ (as the kids don’t say).  Here are some things I have “tried” (Yoda Baby):

An Organic diet

A diet free from gluten/dairy/alcohol/artificial sweeteners/ refined sugars/processed foods

Herbal and Vitamin supplements (“try” me, I’ve “tried” it)

Collagen Peptides

Massage (BAD idea)

Acupuncture

Thousands and thousands of dollars on conventional doctors and medications (WORSE idea)

Daily prayer and meditation

Daily walks

Yoga

…and the list of “trying” does go on.

# of “tries” that have “succeeded” in making me well?

ZERO.

So that makes them “fails”, right?

So where does that fall in the “do or do not” paradigm, Yoda?

Before you answer, keep in mind that most of the above list is still in the “trying” phase.  That is to say that just because I have been taking these supplements (for example) for ten months without any relief means I have STOPPED taking them.  HELL, NO!

I am STILL TRYING.

“TRYING”, Yoda.

So why, when all of my effort and “trying” have failed to “do”, do I keep on keepin’ on?

Because I think Yoda is a liar.

I think “trying” is the only game in town.  I think that without “trying”, failure is automatic.  Without “trying”, doing is impossible.  Without “trying”, life is just a slideshow of presentations made by people who were willing to “try” when you were not.

If you’ve never “tried”, you’ve never failed.  If you never failed, you never learned.  If you never learned, you never grew.  If you never grew…

You are still Baby Yoda.

Yes, Virginia, there IS a “try”.

And some days, trying is all we have left to “do”.  So I will keep on trying (haters and Yoda be damned) and if I continue to fail, so be it.  But if you think I am just going to give up on “trying” for anything I want…

YOU DON’T KNOW NUTHIN’.

With all due respect to Yoda, baby.