In the first and therefore best movie in the Star Wars universe — Episode I – The Phantom Menace — a young Anakin Skywalker is declared, by the Jedi council, too old to be trained.
At roughly nine years old, this seems strange — especially since Luke in A New Hope (AKA Star Wars),was not even aware that Force powers existed before the age of 19. But the Jedi, fundamentally a religious order of ascetic monks, subscribe to the belief that training in the temperament and discipline of a Jedi Knight must begin as early as possible.
Without that discipline and temperament, the power of the Force and the temptation of the dark side can prove too immense for a Force user to resist. Far more important than the ability to lift a spaceship out of a swamp or jump around swinging a lightsaber, they must learn to distance themselves from emotions and attachments.
They must learn to resist corruption and wield their gifts with wisdom and calm. And that's how we know that Kate Hudson's daughter — Rani Rose Hudson Fujikawa — is 100% growing up to be a Jedi.
This truth was revealed to us on Wednesday when the Almost Famous star shared a video of her daughter with her 13 million followers on Instagram. In the video, two-year-old Rani has her eyes squeezed shut, and is seated cross-legged beside her father, Danny Fujikawa. Both are nominally meditating, but Danny is clearly looking to his daughter for some pointers.
You might tend to think that a two year old is too young to understand the concept of a practice like meditation. You might think that a toddler would just mimic the aesthetics of the practice without engaging with the internal practice of distilling a mental and emotional clarity from the chaos of daily life.
But Rani handily demonstrates how misguided that assumption is. Taking one deep breath in, she allows the weight of the whole world to drift away on her exhalation, achieving a air of centered, spiritual calm that few yogis can manage with a lifetime of practice.
While many people feel it necessary to meditate for 20, 30 minutes, if not hours at a time, this toddler got through the whole process in a matter of seconds, before taking that elevated insight and rising to her feet to pursue her next endeavor. Even her parents had to marvel at her abilities, with Kate Hudson behind the camera remarking, "that was so good, sweetheart!", and her partner adding, with a hint of envy, "Rani, you are so good at meditating!"
But what are we supposed to make of a toddler who has mastered the ability to detach herself from material concerns with a single breath? Obviously that she is going to tap into the power that binds all living things in the universe.
Even within the video, you can see that nascent power bringing the air around her alive, scintillating with twinkling light, just like Baby Yoda perched on the seeing stone in The Mandalorian. Either that, or Kate Hudson was just using a filter...
Regardless, Rani's powers are on ready display elsewhere on her mother's Instagram. In a post from earlier in the week, Hudson shared a spoonful of ice cream with her daughter, then attempted to reclaim the spoon, only to have Rani resist her, turning her eyes on the Golden Globe winner in an apparent effort at Force persuasion, otherwise known as the Jedi mind trick.
We should all count ourselves lucky that Rani's parents are Fujikawa, a folk rock musician, and Hudson, the owner of yoga pants company Fabletics. If the couple were less spiritually inclined, they may not have recognized the need for this training, and all or our ice cream would be at risk from their daughter's burgeoning abilities, and her dark impulses.
Thankfully, they are training her in a more enlightened perspective, with the added guidance of grandparents Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. So we can all look forward to a future in which Rani Rose Hudson Fujikawa protects us all from the dark side (i.e. Grimes and Elon Musk's kid).
Also, she's pretty cute.