Because, it all depends on your prospective. There is always someone worse off than you, sometimes, much worse off....don't forget that.
First Published, March 3, 2006
To Boldly Go....
Surrender Your Garbage Pods
I was watching an episode of Star Trek the other day. I had seen it about a dozen times, but Star Trek never really gets old. Like Gilligan's Island or CSI, you can watch it over and over. Syndicators must love these shows.
I sort of questioned why I liked watching Star Trek so much. I know that originally, it was the science fiction, gee whiz, neato, gadgetry and action, but as I grew older, my fascination with the show shifted. I found myself being 'comfortable' on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.
That is when it sort of dawned on me. This show was the ultimate escape. The reality of life, especially once we have grown up and flown the nest can be pretty harsh. Taxes, traffic, alimony payments, incompetent supervisors, dead batteries all tend to make the daily struggle in the modern world pretty bleak at times.
As I watched Captain Picard order Ensign Crusher to Warp 3, it sort of sunk in. This was the perfect office. Imagine it. Going to work in a place where everyone is competent, no one is ever late, everyone has a 'can-do' attitude, you do really important things (like saving whole civilizations) and in the end, the Captain usually gets to have hot sex with some gorgeous, albeit strangely alien heroin with no fear of sexual harassment.
In contrast to the real world, I realized that through some twist of fate, I have been assigned to the Starship Garbage Skow. That long forgotten Star Fleet tug boat where all the "C" students from Star Fleet Academy are assigned. In my world, we struggle to get the warp engines on line every day, the Chief Engineer is usually drunk, the Communications Officer doesn't show up for days, the Science Officer secretly struggles with a Rubic's Cube in his quarters and the Captain has flaming gay tendencies.
The Star Trek on television is the ideal. That place that we all wished we could be assigned to and thrive in. But alas, it is just a fantasy.
I have learned that life aboard the Starship Garbage Skow isn't really all that bad. We rarely get attacked by fleets of irate Romulans or Klingons. The tasks that Star Fleet assigns to us aren't usually that difficult and I get to spend a lot of time looking out the picture windows (that need cleaning) and watch the planet we are orbiting rotate underneath me while the Engineer tries to jury-rig a fuse to get the impulse engines back on line.
I suppose that you have to find happiness regardless of what universe you get stuck in. Life is what you make it. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go program the replicator to whip up some more cannabis and Guinness Stout.
Warp Factor 7 Mr. Smith....Engage
Very meaningful post, well thought out.
ReplyDeleteP.S.
I've tried watching S.Trek but I find myself flipping the station or I find my mind wanders. Just can't get into it.
I work on the Star Fleet ship Left Ahead. We only have one engine going so we just fly in circles an never actually get anywhere. However the crew is oblivious to this fact as they just see stars whizzing on by so they think they are traveling through space like all the other ships.
ReplyDeleteHa! Great take and so true. I have always loved Star Trek and Star Wars; I grew up with both and both were definitely exercises in escapism. Not that I had a bad childhood; far from it. But during a time that REAL space travel was in its infancy, I always wished I had the Right Stuff to become an astronaut. Sadly, I did not. I always saw Star Wars as Outer Space Travel, and Star Trek as Inner Space Travel, ie. more of the exploration of the mind...
ReplyDeleteAnd I can emphathize with your frustration at your current shipmates; real life will never measure up to what the characters on TV and in the movies portray. Not by a long shot.
Live Well And Prosper.
I was well prepared to go with you on a journey, at warp speed, to a place where you complain about work. Because your work can never compare to the perfection of the enterprise.
ReplyDeleteThen I was gonna say, but the enterprise isn't real. It was a fictional tv show.* But then
THEN
you said it first. It is a fantasy you say.
. . . .actually I wasn't going to say anything until you said the fantasy line because I am done analyzing your work posts.
And then you kick your way to the surface, and you find yourself seeing the positives, choosing to count the blessings as it were.
and i say goddamn Bruce, what the hell happened? I mean, seriously. This was three years ago. Your subsequent posts on work don't end this way, on a high note. huh. Well, what ever happened i raise my glass! (thanks for replicating the Guinness btw ;)
*while men may use star trek or star war metaphors to better understand their lives, women WOMEN!!!GRRRRRR will reference sex and the city to understand their love lives SGGGGRRRRRDRRASRE!!!! I mean, what more horrible role models than the FICTIONAL cast of that show. FICTION blah. . . ok getting off the high horse now . . .
thanks for replicating the THC btw ;)
get it ... high horse .. o never mind :P
hey! i used "to boldy go" as the name of MY blog post 2 weeks ago!
ReplyDeletei call shenanigans!
of course yours was done first...
so sue me!
My lawyers will be in touch with you shortly.
ReplyDeleteOk, so the starship garbage skow it is. Oh well. I wouldn't mind a replicator at any rate.
ReplyDelete