American Jedi Page #4

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- Before I knew him.

- The first time I met Opie,

I was teaching my sword class.

I was teaching for the Academy

of European Fighting Arts.

- I didn't think he was

involved all this time that

you and Michelle were...

- How do you think we met?

- The sword thing...

When he was doing it out

in the park in Burbank.

- That's where we met.

That's not why we met.

I met him at the

park 'cause he was

doing stuff at the park,

but then we went

over to like islands,

or we'd get something

to eat, you know.

Sit down, and we would talk.

So yeah, we met

online, but then...

Yeah, met face to face,

you know, at the park.

All three of us got together...

- And we had a

wonderful conversation.

Ate up a whole lot of time.

Just seemed to fly.

He's a passionate guy.

I love it, because I...

Talk about a passionate guy.

I just...

I even told him, at

the time, I said,

you are one of

the most respected

Jedi among the Sith, because

you'd make a great Sith.

He didn't like that.

- And...

But at the same time, the

marriage was not going well.

One night I was hanging

out with my friend,

and she was like, "Well, I

wanna go hang out with Miles."

And they have, like a

Renaissance thing going on.

Renaissance group.

And I was like, oh yeah, cool.

You know, that sounds

cool, have fun.

- How dark am I willing to go?

I have an understanding

of myself that

involves things that

culture rejects.

- She was into BDSM.

Not my bag.

So I pick her up

from Miles' house,

not thinking anything of it.

Her back's turned

to me, and it's...

bruised.

Looked like...

If you took a baseball bat,

and just...

I mean, it looked,

you know, bad.

And that was her thing

that I didn't deliver.

Then I doubt she

could've put together

a bigger sense of betrayal.

(woman moaning)

(whip snapping)

- Had a wonderful time.

We had a falling out

over personal issues.

- My student, who I had

said was a Jedi Knight,

not only tossed

the Jedi path away,

to follow, and

explore the Sith path,

but also slept with a Sith.

A Sith is gonna look

to take what he wants.

- The Jedi have

that great phrase,

"May the Force be with you.

"May it be with you."

Well, if it's in the

trees, and the air,

and between us, and everywhere,

then it's always with you.

Well that's fine.

And Sith go with a

slightly different twist.

"May the Force serve you well."

- He doesn't have morality,

he doesn't care what he...

He doesn't care about

stepping on you,

to get what he wants.

He's not gonna care

that you're crushed,

and your whole life

has been destroyed.

(woman moaning)

(whip snapping)

In my darkest moments,

I made a great

Sith because I had

nothing but hatred,

man I hated him.

I hated her, I hated him,

I hated the Sith path.

F the Sith, man.

I had complete venom.

- He disappeared for awhile,

off of my radar at least.

- All I did was basically

play video games,

computer games, and drink.

That was it.

- And he went through

a bit of a rough patch.

- It hit me hard, and I

let all the practices go.

I didn't do anything

with the Jedi path.

I didn't even try.

You know, it's not like I tried

to deal with any

of it like a Jedi.

I just tossed it out

the window, F it.

- All of us, at some

point, or another,

if we are to grow, must

descend into the darkness.

Sometimes it's brought

about by another person.

- It may not be until a

moment of great tragedy,

that they are actually motivated

to go take the journey.

And this devastating

loss is either

going to kill you, or

kill your old self,

so a better self can emerge.

Well, for Luke Skywalker,

it is the murder

of his aunt, and uncle.

And so it seems we

are out there alone.

- Emotional wounds,

and suffering,

are a very good thing for

the spiritual warrior.

They are what gets

the path started.

- I've been active

in the Jedi community

for 15 years now,

and I've never really

had that recognition

on this kind of level.

This is more than

one group, you know,

this is a community recognition.

So, I'm bringing two bags.

One of 'em is gonna be for

the ceremonial clothes.

It's when a lot of Jedi

wear their Jedi robes.

And things that they feel

represent them as Jedi.

In Star Wars, the

idea of Jedi robes

was they were meant to fit in.

To be a product of their time.

And that's more what I go with.

I try to go with more...

Be good to catch up with Perris.

It'll be nice to see

how she's been doing.

Hannigan.

Hannigan, Hannigan,

is going to be there.

I don't know how

that's going to go.

I suppose there's some tension

between me, and Hannigan.

He held onto an

identity, basically

a troll of the Jedi.

He likes to run his mouth, which

tends not to go

over with a group

of people who

consider themselves

protectors, and

upholders of justice.

Nothing really

beats sitting down,

and being able to

talk with people

that you've been arguing

with, and debating with,

and discussing with, and

laughing with online.

To be able to do

that offline just

adds to the sense of community.

(gentle ambient music)

I'm in Chicago now.

I'm going to see Angelis.

I call him Gabe,

and he's the one

sponsoring me, this

year, at the Jedi trials.

- Opie is one of the oldest

members in the community.

He was there before

I was, and so that

already says a lot,

in itself, because

I've been in the community

for a little over a decade.

And so, the fact

that now he's come

back and joined the

rest of the group,

I think is exciting,

because he is one

of those people that

I've always looked

forward, and looked

towards, and saw

as a guiding Force.

So here I have my altar.

I am also a Shaman.

Shamanism, for those

who don't know,

is very nature focused, and sees

the Great Spirit,

or what people would

call the Force, or God,

and that Great Spirit

is in everything, and basically,

you can connect to

it, whenever you want,

however you want.

- The difference

between spirituality,

and religion, is that

religion has a form.

It has set practices.

It often has rules.

It has protocols.

And sometimes these can be very

constricting, and conflicting.

But often, they can be excellent

guidelines to help

us better live

the spiritual principles

that we want to embody.

- The way we do our

Padawan training,

is we feel that it usually

takes about three years.

'Cause it takes about

that long to just

incorporate all the knowledge.

We take this very seriously.

We wanna make sure that a person

is committed to becoming a Jedi.

To serving as a role model.

Being a representative of

who we are, and what we do.

And so that's why

we say it's gonna...

It's not a short process.

In a way, we sort of

consider ourselves,

sort of like the Ivy

League of all the chapters,

so that if you

are a knight here,

you are basically a

knight everywhere.

Thank you for

coming, and welcome

to another meeting

for Chicago Jedi.

I think the most

challenging aspect

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