Curious in Book Seven: Reconstruction 2020

Today has been a day of mostly wishing time away. A terrible thing to do as life is only ever what we make of it and simply existing is quite far from the impact I want my life to have before it ends. So whatever I may have to do this weekend to find a way of returning to myself… I must do.

That being said, this has given me time to consider something. Gene Roddenberry and Trek Purists often become rather upset that my favorite Star Trek is Deep Space Nine. The concepts of The Federation and Star Trek were meant to demonstrate a Utopia of science and progress that humans would take with them as they explored the universe. But that’s the very reason I preferred Deep Space Nine. Even IF there were Utopia Species… and on the unlikely chance that humans could ever be included as a Utopia Species… the very nature of exploration would force Utopia Species to interact with “less advanced” species. And more… perhaps “less Utopia but more technologically advanced.” If the Vulcan Philosophy is to be Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations then it must be true that warfare, greed, deceit, and all the dirty parts of reality would inevitably become a massive part of The Federation’s Exploration experience. Hell, in Enterprise it is arguable that such inevitability is the very reason the Vulcans don’t want the humans exploring the universe to begin with. But that is what Deep Space Nine is at the heart of it. The Federation in its “Human Utopia attempt” being forced to co-exist and live alongside Religious Aliens, Greedy Aliens, Hostile Aliens, and life forms beyond the imagination and understanding of any Federation Scientist to that point in time.

I bring any and all of this up because Deep Space Nine reminds me of my mother’s father. He and I had a strange relationship while he was alive. I felt that he was a stoic man that found very little value in my person. He was an artist and took my older brother under his wing. Charcoals, pastels, ink, paints… he helped introduce my brother to entire worlds where his natural artistic talents could take further flight. Meanwhile, my artistic abilities have always been more of the nature of a blind no-armed brain-dead lemur so that was an entire world of experience and bonding that was unavailable to me. Even after his death, I thought that my grandfather simply… didn’t see anything special or worthwhile about me. I mentioned something of that nature once after he had died. Not in a self-pitying way but in a sense of regret way. How I wished that I’d had something that he found worthwhile because I would have liked to be closer to him. Mom was shocked that I had thought that. Her father and I shared a rich love of mythology, cultural history, and Deep Space Nine. Thing is… I’d never known. Papa, as we called him, wasn’t one to talk much about himself. So these things that we shared, that he saw in me, that made him feel connected to me… I never knew about. So now sometimes when I watch Deep Space Nine or read a DS9 script, I’ll think about him. I’ll think about how we probably did both really appreciate the same things, the same characters, the same story-lines in DS9. And how we just never talked about it. And how that’s the kind of thing that sticks with me. Because I don’t care if I seem egotistical by talking about myself. I don’t care if I come across as some nerd or geek. If I like something, and that something can make me and a friend feel closer… help us understand each other… make us feel more connected? Why wouldn’t I talk about that?!

Never stay silent about things that can build community with people you care about. Because some day, you (or them) may be gone and then it will be too late.