Following Halloween the costumes were 90% off (thanks Target).  So we loaded up for Ezekiel’s birthday. $10 got Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, the Millennium Falcon… but Ezekiel’s favorite by far is the Darth Vader mask.

He doesn’t have a very strong dark side — “that’s scary” is one of his most common phrases.  So we wondered why he loves Darth Vader (who MrE calls “bay-der”). Of course he hasn’t seen the movies, but just by itself the mask is a little concerning.

Then Meg reminded me, the way Ezekiel knows Vader is through the children’s books — he knows Vader as a dad.

And when we see past the mask we find everyone is a parent, son, daughter, brother, sister… a person we can love. Even “bay-der”.