TO BOLDLY GO

Yesterday, I got up out of bed to discover that Leonard Nimoy had passed away.  The geek universe has lost a bright star.  This made me ponder many things. 

People who tolerate my sporadic posting habits and visit on a regular basis (you are appreciated) know that I very rarely post things of a personal nature.  This post will contain some very personal thoughts.

I have spent my night thinking of the people who have left us.  Gene Roddenberry, his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Rick Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway, Michael O’Hare and so many more, big time actors like John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Clark Gable, Dean Martin, Gregory Peck, John Colicos, Lorne Greene and now, Leonard Nimoy, my father, who passed beyond the rim in late October and my mother who joined him in early January.

It occurred to me, early this morning that most of my childhood heroes have left us.  Yes, my parents were heroes to me.  There are few heroes left from my childhood.  Many of the actors from the original Battlestar Galactica remain.  William Shatner, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig are all still around.  On the odd chance they ever see this; I give them thanks for making my childhood a better world.  For teaching me that I should never give up, never surrender, that there is always a way.  These are lessons that I was able to learn while spending an hour in front of a television watching Star Trek.

The death of one’s childhood is nothing to take lightly.  I believe that our inner child fuels our imagination and our creativity.  It allows us to escape the doldrums of our so called adult lives and lets us be free if only for a few moments.  As a person from an older generation, my heroes had class and style.  They were well dressed and well spoken.  They weren’t in a tabloid every week and they didn’t act like trash.  They were role models that shaped a generation.  I miss them.  No one today measures up.

I miss my childhood heroes and I weep for today’s generation who will never know them.  I think this world would be a far better place if they had.

You did indeed live long and prosper Mr. Nimoy.  In ways you may not have been aware of, you touched the lives of so many.  May your lessons never be forgotten.