an early Mothers Day gift

So we are all in the living room, after dinner. I am on the computer and the boys are watching Star Wars with their Dad. In order to tell you this story, I had to get up and go ask Sam which episode it was, because the 48 sequels, prequels and annuals of that George Lucas money-making machine gets all mixed up in my brain. So Sam says the movie was "Episode 1: The Phantom Menace". Anyway, if you have seen it, there is a scene where young Anakin (and he's a cute little boy here, with no hint of the evil Darth Vader he would become in his sweet little face) is a slave, along with his mother. Liam Neeson (Qui-gon Jinn or some crazy name) is freeing him from slavery, and taking him off to be a Jedi Knight. After all the flash of the speeding pod racers and victorious finish comes a heartbreaking scene where Anakin finds out his mother is still a slave, and he has to leave her behind. She, full of noble love and self-sacrifice, is encouraging her little son to go and yet there are tears in her eyes because she knows she will never see him again. Our living room is quiet and then I hear Caleb say, quietly and wistfully

"I would sell the pod racer, and free her."

I turn around, surprised. I'm deeply touched and suddenly, madly in love with my youngest child and moved by his devotion to me, so I say to him

"Wow. Caleb, thank you! That means SO MUCH to me, that you would want to free your Mama."

and then he grins mischievously and responds



"Yeah. "Cause then I would have my own slave."