Carrie

Today I told my mother how I admired Carrie Fisher for her wisdom and wit, her talent and writing skills. How I respected her as an intelligent and thoughtful woman, and how sorry I was that we lost her. My mother then told me that I better do all that then. If the world would miss all that, I better step in and be that woman. I have to say, the reason she called me in the first place was to ask who Carrie Fisher was. I had texted my sadness and she was at a loss at the name and so she rang me. Princess Leia was a name she remembered, and then she proceeded, probably unwittingly, to drop the above on me: quite possibly the most profound wisdom with which she has ever presented me.

General Organa, the role Fisher (re)prised in the Star Wars universe, is closer to me than Princess Leia has ever been. Sure enough I thought Leia was cool, and tough, and pretty, and I wanted to be like her. But the calm determination of the princess-turned-general, no longer a loose rebel canon but a steady force to be reckoned with, that is a beacon. Gen. Organa does not compromise herself – just as Carrie Fisher was so unapologetically Carrie Fisher. She never claimed to be without fear but embraced it, even in darkness, used it to go beyond herself and claim the terrain she gained as her own.

My mother’s off-hand-yet-completely-on-the-ball-remark is as real as they come. Be intelligent and thoughtful. Use your wisdom (such as it is) and wit, talent and skills. Be that woman. Because nobody else will be you.