temptation in the real world

So it may not be a sin, but man am I under attack by serious temptation today. About 3 years ago at around this same time of year, I came across a website that claimed to have THE official script for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. I figured that with all the false information that gets generated, and the few tidbits of real information that existed, someone had merely tried to piece together what they thought the movie would be like. Well, I was wrong. The script was dead on about all the major plot points and while it might not have contained every little detail, it contained enough that when I saw the movie in theaters I was awed, but not surprised. I was watching the movie with the expectation of what was supposed to happen according to what I had read. I still enjoyed the movie; I am huge Star Wars fan and always will be. However, with the approach of the final installment, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, I have done my best to avoid filling my heading with too much knowledge of the movie. Only I ran into a problem, somehow in reading my daily dose of spoiler-free Star Wars news over at theforce.net, I stumbled across a link that sent me to the very site that I found the Episode II script 3 years ago. As I scanned the page for the news that I was interested in, the further down I got I found myself reading detailed information about the movie. I checked the navigation links on the side of the page and realized that the site claimed to have the whole script along with the script of every other Star Wars movie. I did my best to resist, by instead reading some of the other information on the site, and so far my will power is holding out - but it got me thinking.

While it may not be sinful, it does represent in all its true colors the kinds of mental games we play on ourselves when we are tempted. We know what we should do and what we should not do, and often we can make the conscious decision to do the right thing. Many times the problem is that we are enticed by an easy way to obtain something we really want, and our challenge is to avoid rationalizing that offer. It is an extremely difficult task when you are battling yourself over an issue. Some temptations are easy to pick out, some are more subtle. Deciding whether or not to read the script of a movie prior to its release obviously is very tempting, not sinful, but a very real battle of wills. And since we are on the Star Wars topic, think of it as the Dark Side - subtle, elusive, tempting, always offering an easy route to the same goal you are pursuing; and by the time you realize you are on the wrong path, it is hard to distinguish where it was you went wrong.

Will I make it all the way to May 19th without reading the full script? I don't know the answer, but I am going to try. Does whether I know the full plot really take away from my experience? Yes and no: the visuals and speed of the action will obviously capture my imagination more than reading alone ever could, but then I would again go into a movie that I have full knowledge of what happens. While some movies I find perfectly fine to this, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, they were first books and later movies; Star Wars was always written first as a movie and later adapted to a book. In reality, if I do read the script, my life won't be ruined.... but I might feel cheated by myself and disappointed in my lack of will power.