Catharine Figuratively.
So I’m a huge Star Trek nerd. My favorite series growing up was Voyager, which my family watched together, because I loved that the captain was a woman, and that we had the same name! (Captain Katherine Janeway)
😂 .
I also love The Next Generation.
As a teen, I found the joy of playing the theme songs for Star Trek on the piano. They’re pretty fun.
Somewhere along the line, I was given a cd set for “How to Learn to Speak Klingon.” They recommend holding a napkin in front of your face to deal with all the spitting.
Though I’m no where NEAR as hard-core as many other Trekkies, I was pretty proud of this Jadzia Dax costume I put together last minute for the premiere of the new Star Trek movies, when I was in college.
I’ve always loved that Star Trek seems to call us as viewers to stand up for the best parts of being human, and gives us hope for a better future.
So you can imagine how much I flipped out when I learned that CAPTAIN KIRK (William Shatner) was actually going to get to go to outer space!!
Apparently Blue Origin invited him to join on a short, captainless flight right to the edge of space, with three other passengers. The flight took place on October 13, 2021. If you missed it, can watch it here.
Jeff Bezos was there for the launch and to welcome them home.
As Shatner climbed the ladder up to the spacecraft, he took a moment to look out, and shielded his eyes with his hand. It was just the way he might survey an alien planet in his signature role as Captain Kirk.
Each passenger rang a silver colored bell as they ascended the steps, and boarded.
After several hang-ups (an “anomoly in the engine!”), there was a count down, and a blast off. They took a brief trip to suborbital space, and then came back down to earth.
There were parachutes, and a satisfying dust cloud upon landing.
Jeff Bezos stuck his head inside first, to congratulate everyone.
When Shatner came out, his first words were, “It was fun.” Those were the last words of his character, Captain Kirk, in the movie, “Generations.” The allusion was not lost on me and other enthusiasts.
After everyone was out, there was a lot of jumping around (though not by Shatner). Some people were there who were dressed very nicely but not in a way that seemed to match going to outer space at all. It was a strange mismatch- there was an Instagram moment, a publicity moment- popping of champagne bottles and people squirting each other with the spray- juxtaposed against a very real, serious, deeply moving (and dangerous) experience the passengers on the ship had just gone through.
Shatner was completely overcome by the experience. He talked about the thinness of our atmosphere- how as they flew up, it was just a couple “beats” of blue- and then the blackness of space. He compared the “life” of blue of earth with the “death” of the blackness of space. He spoke of not being sure he would survive the gravitational forces. As a 90 year old, the oldest person to have gone to space, that’s understandable.
I was sad that there wasn’t more of an audience prepared to hear his wisdom. He talked about the preciousness, and fragility, of our atmosphere, and expressed dismay that we would do anything to hurt it. That we need to value and appreciate the earth for sustaining us.
Along with 100% geeking out on watching Captain Kirk go to space, I was also deeply moved.
We do have a precious earth, and there is very little margin in the factors that hold everything together, sustaining our lives. Shatner mentioned the exact balance of oxygen needed in the atmosphere… so much depends on so little.
Writing from a Christian perspective- it really moved me and made me realize how the humancentric view so many Christians have, thinking that since humans were created last, etc, and that we were made in God’s image, that we are somehow unbreakable…. that because Adam was given dominion over the animals in the Garden of Eden, that we somehow have a right do do whatever we want to the earth… it just makes me sad.
I don’t know what the end times will look like and I don’t want to speculate, particularly. If humans have a hand in our own undoing, I won’t be surprised. I think that we who are alive now should do all we can to show love by selflessly caring for others, including the earth, animals, and plants we’ve been entrusted with. And especially by caring for our fellow humans, and for future humans who will inherit this same earth.
🖖
As one Trekkie to another, let me join in exulting over Captain Kirk’s voyage and post flight commentary/insights. I’d love to see it as the launching pad into a deep discussion of how we can share his insights such that we (humanity) are motivated to take action.