Captain Kirk is the coolest
We had a bit of a discussion about Star Trek today at work. Well, I did anyway, and my coworkers smiled and nodded and acted interested (I don't think I work with any Star Trek fans). I think it started because I was wearing short black pants (capri-ish) with boots and I always feel like I should be on the Enterprise when I wear that outfit. To add to the ambiance, my screen-saver at work is Beam Me Up Scotty (a carry-over from the crazy real estate boom of a year or two ago); combien appropriate.
I love Star Trek. The old ones. (I only saw them in reruns because we didn't have a TV when they were new.) It was genius, really, considering it was created more than 40 years ago. The flip-top communication devices (cell phones?), the sterile food from the little food slots (no listeriosis in those puppies!), the confident black woman (Uhura was nobody's fool!) and the Asian guy at the controls.
For SURE you didn't want to be the nameless guy in the red shirt going on a mission to an unknown planet, though. Those guys never came back.
I often marvel at how we're turning into a sterile Star Trek world. Computerized to the nth degree. We don't want to talk to a bank representative anymore -- we can do it all online, even get a mortgage without actually talking to a human being at the bank. We sit on the bus with an ipod in our ear or a computer on our lap instead of talking to the mortal sitting beside us, even though we see them on the same bus at the same time every day on our way to work. We drive our cars into our attached garages, slip silently into our houses and go two years without ever talking to the next-door neighbour. We'd rather email than phone because what if they're busy and don't have time to talk? (I am SO guilty of that one!) And if, by some fluke, someone actually does call we can just check our call display and ignore the call anyway.
I can see us all living in a USS Enterprise world someday not far off. Isolated, quiet, sanitary, clinical. People are annoying. They smoke, smell like perfume, drive too fast/slow, let their cats wander. Remember the Enterprise? No one was ever in the hallways. There wasn't any loud music to annoy the fellow crew. There was no clutter; no pictures, no religion, nothing to offend.
Nah. I kind of like diversity. I like weirdness. I like the neighbourhood cats, even though they poo in my yard and freak out my dogs (and my cats who aren't allowed outside). I miss the days when we just tolerated things that other people did because we weren't more important than they were, their feelings were just as valid as ours.
I only have a few good decades left on this planet (if I'm really lucky. How sobering is that?) and I hope I never have to see the day that we forget where we came from, forget how to communicate face to face or forget to care if the guy beside us is happy or sad. Captain Kirk was cool, but he didn't seem to have a family and he didn't much seem to care.
Maybe I need to look up some reruns of Bonanza...
I love Star Trek. The old ones. (I only saw them in reruns because we didn't have a TV when they were new.) It was genius, really, considering it was created more than 40 years ago. The flip-top communication devices (cell phones?), the sterile food from the little food slots (no listeriosis in those puppies!), the confident black woman (Uhura was nobody's fool!) and the Asian guy at the controls.
For SURE you didn't want to be the nameless guy in the red shirt going on a mission to an unknown planet, though. Those guys never came back.
I often marvel at how we're turning into a sterile Star Trek world. Computerized to the nth degree. We don't want to talk to a bank representative anymore -- we can do it all online, even get a mortgage without actually talking to a human being at the bank. We sit on the bus with an ipod in our ear or a computer on our lap instead of talking to the mortal sitting beside us, even though we see them on the same bus at the same time every day on our way to work. We drive our cars into our attached garages, slip silently into our houses and go two years without ever talking to the next-door neighbour. We'd rather email than phone because what if they're busy and don't have time to talk? (I am SO guilty of that one!) And if, by some fluke, someone actually does call we can just check our call display and ignore the call anyway.
I can see us all living in a USS Enterprise world someday not far off. Isolated, quiet, sanitary, clinical. People are annoying. They smoke, smell like perfume, drive too fast/slow, let their cats wander. Remember the Enterprise? No one was ever in the hallways. There wasn't any loud music to annoy the fellow crew. There was no clutter; no pictures, no religion, nothing to offend.
Nah. I kind of like diversity. I like weirdness. I like the neighbourhood cats, even though they poo in my yard and freak out my dogs (and my cats who aren't allowed outside). I miss the days when we just tolerated things that other people did because we weren't more important than they were, their feelings were just as valid as ours.
I only have a few good decades left on this planet (if I'm really lucky. How sobering is that?) and I hope I never have to see the day that we forget where we came from, forget how to communicate face to face or forget to care if the guy beside us is happy or sad. Captain Kirk was cool, but he didn't seem to have a family and he didn't much seem to care.
Maybe I need to look up some reruns of Bonanza...
posted by ruthieB | 8:05 PM
1 Comments:
No, you need to watch The Beverly Hillbillies. My favourite and you will not be disappointed. Why do you think I am known as "Grannie Donna". It's is intentional. She is my hero.I have some on DVD if you can't find them in NB.
DJ
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