#1200: “Miracle Worker, indeed. ”

[07:17] *** Wed Jul 25 2007 - LOGGING START ***
[07:17] *** Now talking in #suburbansenshi
[07:17] *** FireFly_9 [ruin@ntt1.docomo.jp] has joined #suburbansenshi
[07:17] <@spiritflame> Irasshai FireFly_9
[07:17] <FireFly_9> Hello?
[07:17] <FireFly_9> Is anyone around?
[07:18] * FireFly_9 guesses not
[07:18] <FireFly_9> Well I shall ramble unto myself for a time
[07:20] <FireFly_9> with all the negativity in the world lately, all the plots and plans and backstabbings and inchoate treacheries that seem to be abrew, sometimes it's good to look back on those who do not bring destruction but actually bring inspiration.
[07:21] <FireFly_9> I was pointed to a story the other day.
[07:21] <FireFly_9> About a child's meeting with an actor, James Doohan, who played "Scotty" on the original Star Trek.
[07:22] <FireFly_9> I found it quite refreshing.
[07:22] <FireFly_9> In pertinent detail, this is what stood out for me:
[07:23] <FireFly_9>“ My son, then 9, carried rolled blueprints of the Enterprise I bought off of eBay, and my youngest boy, then 7, carried his Scotty action figure. We were set.”
[07:24] <FireFly_9>“ Scotty greeted each fan with a handshake. I watched him lean close to hear each name, and he took time and care signing each book and DVD... My boys stared at Scotty, didn't notice the huge Harry Potter display or the cafe selling fresh chocolate chip cookies. They watched and listened as Scotty spoke with his crazy old world accent, as he focused on each individual person, one by one by one.”
[07:24] <FireFly_9>“ Soon it was our turn. 9 rolled his blueprints out on the table and pointed to the engineering section.”
[07:24] <FireFly_9>“ "Would you please sign my Enterprise blueprints, Sir?" Two rows of books framed my boy, as if he stood in one of the starship corridors. He spelled his name slowly, and Scotty smiled and bent down, scribbled a personal note and a signature in great flourish. 9 thanked him, and then paused. Oh, no, I thought, here it comes.”
[07:24] <FireFly_9>“ "Uh, Sir, may I ask a question?" I closed my eyes and bit my tongue and sent a quick prayer to whoever might be listening that 9 didn't put Scotty on the spot. The old man nodded and grinned. 9 plowed ahead, asked a question about a specific time-traveling episode where Scotty pulled a miracle out of his uniformed butt, saved the Enterprise, the crew, a lost-cause planet, and the whole friggen universe at large. "So," 9 continued, "how is this possible?" He didn't stop talking, pointed out the temporal inconsistencies, the ways in which science declares These Things Impossible.”
[07:25] <FireFly_9>“ Oh man, I thought. Here it comes. I waited for Scotty to tell 9 that these things simply aren't real, they are figments of some writer's imagination, and he just acted, just pretended to fix a starship. 9 knows this already, I knew. But who wants to hear it from an idol?”
[07:25] <FireFly_9>“ Scotty motioned for 9 to come closer, to lean his head in for a big secret. 9 did, tipped one ear toward Scotty's mouth, and to this day I remember word for word what he said. ”
[07:25] <FireFly_9>“ "Son, all of these ideas come from the future. All of the people of Star Trek used the power of their own minds to discover what might be possible. Now it's your turn to think about the future and to work at going boldly where no one has gone before. You can make these things possible."”
[07:26] <FireFly_9> Think about that.
[07:30] <FireFly_9> In an age when those with the intellect merely seek to find new and better ways of destruction, thinking in their own twisted way that what they do is for some higher good, or virtue, that somehow making weapons of death, or gleefully tearing apart the lives of people who they will never meet for a moment's pleasure or some obscure political tenet is the height of nobility and true goodness, here is a man, who could so easily have taken the "Cheap way out" that I have seen many an actor take, breaking the illusion and ruining the power of the tapestry they helped to create--
[07:32] <FireFly_9> Here was someone who used the mystique and legend that had sprung up around him for true virtue and goodness-- to inspire and nurture, to encourage and promote the dreams of the next generation that first unfurled on his watch.
[07:33] <FireFly_9> The story is here.
[07:33] <FireFly_9> I must wonder, to myself
[07:34] <FireFly_9> There are those who speak of doing good and who, in reality, simply rend. One need only look to the leaders of great nations to see this.
[07:36] <FireFly_9> Much harm can be done in the self-delusional cloak of being "virtuous and noble." People, playing a role to deceive themselves into lessening the regret in their internal monologue, if any exists. Two-faced Januses who smile at the world, then knife it. The faces we see on TV every day on the news, at the G8, whereever.
[07:36] <FireFly_9> People with power who use that power to commit atrocity in the name of righteousness.
[07:37] <FireFly_9> And then here, (not to denigrate the man or the profession in any way) an actor.
[07:37] <FireFly_9> An actor whose JOB it is to, well bluntly, deceive. To put on a face that is false, to play a role, a part, to be someone he is not.
[07:38] <FireFly_9> Someone who, while famous in his own way, is not one of the great "pillars" of history, like the oh-so-noble crusaders from on high who move the chess pieces of the world
[07:38] <FireFly_9> And yet, in his own way, he is more pure, more noble, and more virtuous than ANY of those so called "makers of destiny."
[07:39] <FireFly_9> Because while they talk the talk of "values" and "decency" and "honor" and leave naught but destruction in their wake, here is a man who, with just a few simple words whispered into the ear of a bright-eyed child...
[07:39] <FireFly_9> ...here is a man who creates hope for the future.
[07:40] *** FireFly_9 [ruin@ntt1.docomo.jp] has left #suburbansenshi (No more need be said.)
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