Of All The Souls

Star Trek was an important influence on me. I looked forward to watching it every week during it’s original airing. A world in which a  black woman, an asian, a russian, a scottsman, a plain speaking country doctor and an alien worked harmoniously with their captain in a supportive and nurturing way for common noble purposes. This was a comforting vision of the future, particularly for a misfit with few evident redeeming features. It was Mr. Spock within this team, that I was particularly drawn to.  He applied his mind,…if I worked hard enough I could try to apply my mind and be a valuable member of society. Yet despite this his unshakable adherence to logic and rationality he was loyal, a team player and a good friend. As Kirk observed: “of all the souls i’ve encountered in my travels his was the most human”.

I used to believe I worked in team reminiscent of the Enterprise crew and at times this idea sustained me. I was sadly and somewhat cruelly mistaken. My current experience of cold, friendless demolished team in no way diminishes the power and hopefully transformative aspiration of the Roddenberry vision and Spock as a central character of this vision of the future. As I mused in “Deathly Wisdom”, ‘it is necessary for us to continue to believe what is not true, in order that it may one day be true.’…it is too late for me but I have great faith in my children and great hope for their future progeny (should they be so blessed).

 

Thank you Leonard Nimoy for your skill and talent in all your endeavours and in particular as Mr. Spock.

May your soul “live long and prosper”, as your characters influence has for generations and I hope generations to come.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m No Andy

The “Shawshank Redemption” is my favourite motion picture. I was extremely reticent to watch it when it was first released. However, once it started I was transfixed. This has never abated.   In the movie, Andy serves almost 20 years when the confluence of reaching breaking point and opportunity for freedom arise. It approaches 20 years (30 years if I count my years as a young slave) that I have been an inmate of “Chateau D’If” (my less than flattering but nonetheless accurate descriptor for my  indentured servitude).  Perhaps, this realization contributed to the uplifting effect of a recent screening.  I have long struggled with the “black dog”. However, more recently my despondency is more reflective of the increasing resemblance of my “jailers” to Warden Norton below. This marked Andy’s epiphany: Andy’s genius was that  he played the long game and strategically set up the pieces of the end game like a chess grand master.     Freedom…glorious freedom… I still find the flawless execution (as only can be contrived in fiction) exhilirating: I am no Andy, however.  I sadly am more like Brooks…institutionalized, irreversibly damaged and afraid of the real world: I yearn to be  like Red: but alas I have no friend, no Andy to illuminate the path to salvation or anticipating my release and journey to Zihuatanejo, no priest to inspire my as did Edmond Dantes, I am on the “Green Mile”… Peace to fellow invisible isolated inmates. May we “get busy living or get busy dying”. May we soar in our minds while our jailers rejoice.