Spoilers!

I've delved a lot into geek culture in my life. In recent years, geek culture has become popular culture, as evidenced by the latest movie release into the Star Wars saga. The Force Awakens ranks in as the third-highest grossing movie worldwide of all time, and rightly so. As far as I'm concerned, it was absolutely fantastic. One big thing the film had going for it was that Star Wars fans had been waiting ten years for a main series movie release and 32 years for a sequel to Return of the Jedi. That is a LOT of anticipation to build on!

Filmmakers, fans, and media reporters all did well to keep spoilers of this new release under wraps until after the official release date. Secrets were kept under lock and key. Reviews were demanded to be spoiler-free. Some of my friends on Facebook were even making death threats to those who would dare share anything about Episode VII before they had the chance to see it.

All the secrecy was very hard on me, because unlike many of my fellow moviegoers, I absolutely love spoilers. I love knowing as many details as I can about a movie or TV show that I'm into before seeing it happen. I'm less interested in discovering what events play out and more interested in how they pull the whole thing off. I even read books the same way Cory Matthews read The Grapes of Wrath on Boy Meets World - "All the way to the beginning."

With the help of some friends, I did, in fact, find numerous spoilers about VII before I made the trip to the IMAX on Christmas Day. (Yes, friends, I knew about that thing that happened...and I dreaded the moments when I was pretty sure that thing was going to happen.) However, the film left me with more questions than answers, even after I saw it for the fourth time over the course of a week. Believe me when I say that I'm already looking for spoilers on Episode VIII.

The term "spoiler" is really lost on me. When I know how something's going to happen, I'm actually more intrigued to see it happen. Nothing is ruined - if anything, it's sweetened. Perhaps I should start calling them "sweeteners?"

What's cool about real life is that there is plenty to satisfy both those who avoid spoilers like the plague and those who dig to the dark reaches of the internet to find "sweeteners." I get to live in this particular dichotomy every single day, as my wife is a "spoiler-free is the way to be" kind of woman. However, she and I have both read the end of The Book, and we know a few spoilers about the end - God wins. Good triumphs over evil. Every tear is wiped away. The separation between God and Man that started in the Garden at the beginning of time comes to an end. That is absolutely something to look forward to, and it's got my mind going, "I can't wait to see how He pulls that off!"

Beyond that, though, life gets to be pretty spoiler-free. No one's life story is completely written out for them until it's all over. God alone knows what paths we will each walk until the end, including the twists, turns, and obstacles. In many cases, this is absolutely for the better. So many of us would do things differently if we knew what kind of heartache and pain we would face along the way. However, when we go through the trials and tribulations, we also experience great joy and fulfillment along the way. The two are in tandem, and despite our desire for one and disdain for the other, the joys wouldn't be nearly as sweet without the sorrows.

We're in the process of writing a great story, friends. Enjoy every pen stroke, every line, every page, and every chapter. We may ultimately know how the story ends, and I, for one, can't wait to see what else is going to happen along the way. I do have one request for this particular story, though:

Please, no spoilers.

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