'via Blog this'
On Sept. 8, 1966, I was just sitting around looking for something to watch on TV. I stumbled onto "Star Trek". I was 10 years old. And I've been hooked ever since.
I'm not a "Trekkie" or a "Trekker". I don't dress up. I haven't remodeled the living room to look like the Enterprise bridge. I don't have pointed sideburns. I have watched every filmed episode of every version of Star Trek in all its forms. I've seen all the movies. I've read a lot of the books. I visit Startrek.com frequently. A Star Trek actor in a project will induce me to watch it.
I have a lot of Star Trek memorabilia. I've bought very little of it. Most of it is gifts from friends and family. When Monica and I first got married, her extended family drew names and exchanged gifts for Christmas. I was new to the family. They heard I liked Star Trek. The logical move: Star Trek themed presents. Which I was cool with. One of the coolest gifts I've ever received from anyone came about this way: Monica's Aunt May drew my name in 1994. Now, May owns a jewelry store in Lexington. She was struggling trying to come up with a gift for me. Now, in case you don't know, William Shatner (Capt. Kirk) is a horse-breeder, and owns a ranch in Lexington. His ranch foreman is a regular of May's shop. He came in one day, and they were talking, and May asked if Shatner would autograph a picture for me. So at the Christmas get-together, I open my gift. It's a picture frame with a piece of cardboard in it. On the cardboard is a note "With love, May" and a kiss. "May, this is...great" I mumbled. Then she told me the story, and added that the picture would be along in a few days. It's in that frame, over my desk. And it's not the autograph that makes it cool, it's the fact that she thought of me and did something different and off the wall. May's still one of my favorite people.
Why Star Trek? Because it's intelligent. It's realistic (once you buy the premise). It's optimistic. It postulates a future where all of mankind's petty differences have been eliminated, and all the energy and creativity used selfishly now is used to solve Earth's problems together. There's no war, no bigotry, no classes of people. It shows a world we'd all like to live in. The characters are real people. The interactions between them are real. And it can be rip-roaring adventure.
Happy birthday, Star Trek! Thanks for everything.
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