Yoda tells Luke “No! Try not. DO. Or do not. There is no try.”

Some might argue that Yoda was wrong. Harsh absolutes are almost always untrue and harmful. There is a try. There is great value in trying. Maybe one of the greatest lessons humanity could stand to learn as a whole is that we can love and accept people for trying, instead of withholding until they succeed (which they rarely actually do)?

But there may be some lingering wisdom in this admonition. Perhaps I’m only thinking of “doing and succeeding” as “doing,” and writing off “doing and failing” as “trying”? However, both are doing. There is no try in this sense. And quite often we grow even more from “doing and failing” than from “doing and succeeding.”

Another interpretation of the grumbling green guy’s words might be that when we do, we should only aim for success. This seems like it might be the case given Luke’s attitude in the actual video (linked below). Planning for (or expecting) failure might be considered “trying,” but if we don’t give it a vested effort, did we do, or did we do not?

Regardless of the varied meanings we might extract from cryptic phrasing delivered in backwards grammar, I’ll still love and accept you for trying, or die trying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4yd2W50No