Today, I did something out of character. I showed up to volunteer for a PTO thing at my kids’ former elementary school. For the record, my kids do not want me showing up at their current schools because they are too cool to actually have something like parents.
The thing I’d signed up for was already done, so I was tasked with leaving1 to connect with the “back of the house” of a local business,2 bringing back ice cream for the kiddos to eat once the event was underway. So my directive was to explore something new and return with a trunk full of happiness.
Just right for me – thank you Lessa and the PTO.
Then I made rainbow tables with an old friend. Another job I could get behind. We talked of why our kids had fallen apart, and felt relieved she knew the truth: social dynamics.
Since when do middle-schoolers talk 1960s television?
Because I was quite possibly raised by wolves, I was wildly surprised when a middle school-aged kid asked for my help. Happy to oblige, we worked together to tamp down the flying purple table cloth on the tattoo table. Out of nowhere, the kid started telling me about Star Trek the Original Series, “you know, the real one, you know, with Kirk and Spock and DeForest Kelley as McCoy.”
Um, what?
One of the finest TV shows ever, broadcast 1966-1969 coming around again? If you know me at all, you know Star Trek was seminal in my upbringing, one of only two TV shows I was allowed to watch as a kid. My wedding ring is inscribed with ‘live long and prosper,’ that’s how important the philosophy of exploration and friendship is to me.
From Star Trek I learned how varied groups of people (and aliens) can work well together; how exploration is an end in and of itself; why the Prime Directive3 is a good guideline; and how to captain the Enterprise with logic, instinct, a smart & friendly team, and love…
We talked episodes (The City on the Edge of Forever4, for one), characters like Yeoman Janice, Nurse Chapel and Uhura in addition to the players mentioned above, and why Star Trek continues to be among the finest shows of all time. We even talked Roddenberry.
She reported that other kids were starting to watch the show, told me about how to accomplish the Vulcan nerve pinch in real life, and gave me a sign. 🖖🏻
By Screen capture from the 3rd Season Star Trek: The Original Series episode “And the Children Shall Lead”. DVD cap, around 41:00., Fair use
Things are going pretty well with the Next Generation.
FOOTNOTES & SUB-SUBTEXT 😉
- I love moving around, so having a job that includes that is great for me. ↩︎
- Huge shout out to Brickley’s for always doing right by the kids, and making spectacular ice cream. ↩︎
- The Prime Directive is a fabulous guideline for so many things. ↩︎
- I wrote about this episode in Portals, belying space and time since the beginning of space and time. ↩︎
