How Star Wars strengthened my marriage

I love Star Wars. I once carved a pumpkin of Darth Vader’s face. I also spent my weekends in college swinging a light saber in my apartment and scaring my roommates.

And it’s the reason I love Star Wars so much that I shouldn’t have been surprised when it strengthened my marriage. That’s right. Star Wars strengthened my marriage.

A few months ago, Derek and I bought Lego Star Wars for Wii and after 55 hours of dedication and a few AA batteries, this happened:

 

I’m no expert in marriage. I’ve only been married eight months, but I think I can say this with confidence: If you want to see your marriage grow, add some Jedi to your life. In all those hours, we faced a range of marital emotions.

Love

Me (to Derek after pulling off impossible controller skills): “You’re my hero.”

Excitement

Derek (before starting gameplay):  “OK. I have a good feeling about this today.”

Anxiety

Me: “We have 10 seconds to finish this level! Go!”

Regret

Me: “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I’m not good at flying with R2.”

Disbelief

Derek: “The controller isn’t working!”

If you’re stuck on the fact that we spent 55 hours playing this game, know two things: 1. We bought this game in August. 2. We don’t have kids.

Did we spend too much time on this game? Maybe.  Did we dream about lightsabers and ewoks? Of course. But we also managed to defeat the empire and restore balance in the force. How many marriages can say that?