Lessons in Management and Life from Star Trek
[You don't have to know Star Trek to appreciate the Lessons]
LESSONS:
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Category: Mankind
JUMP TO LESSON:
009: Crime of wasted time (Picard)
020: Memories last (Data)
023: We are never the villain
024: Finding comfort in hatred (Picard, O'Brian)
027: Leave well enough alone (Data, Worf, Wesley)
037: Lose the fight before the battle (Riker, Guinan)
045: Duty over desire (Picard)
046: Confusing the child (Worf)
047: It's A Wonderful Life (Picard, Q)
048: Blinding conviction ignores truth (Picard)
052: Invite not Death (Troy)
053: Responsibility for elderly care (Troy)
054: Guilty of self-righteous indignation (Troy)
055: Rules are not absolute (Picard)
057: Suppressing feelings and emotions (Data)
060: Root cause of child mis-behavior (Worf)
062: Overcoming personal bias for the right cause (Riker, Worf)
063: Unacceptable traditions and customs (Riker, Worf)
066: Managing hasty decisions (Picard)
068: Crayon is mightier than warp drive (Guinan)
069: Strongest man is he who stands alone (Picaard, Data)
070: Yesterday's enemy, today's friend (Worf)
071: Cultural heritage and assimilation (Worf)
072: Life preservers of old hatreds (Worf)
074: Is ignorance really bliss (Worf)
076: Faith is not religion (Worf)
077: Recognizing Omniscience (Worf)
083: Repressed or confabulated memories (Troy)
094: Unfair treatment for already-paid-for past mistakes (Picard)
095: Death is not the answer (Data)
100: The omnipotent mind (Picard, Q)
105: Circularity of apprehension, worry, stress and anxiety (Worf, Wesley)
106: The only one with whom we must compete (Picard, Wesley)
107: Resisting the changing wind (Worf)
108: From life to death to … (Worf)
110: Dwelling in the past (Picard)
111: Trust of true friendship (Picard, Troy)
112: The primitive society (Picard)
113: Selflessness vs. selfishness (Guinan, Wesley)
115: Understanding death (Picard)
116: Simpler times of yesteryear (Data, LaForge)
117: Learning from failure and defeat (Data, LaForge, Pulaski)
118: Uniquely human trait (Data, Guinan)
119: True test in the face of defeat (Picard, Data, Troy)
120: The partiality of recorded history (Picard)
121: Limitations in life (LaForge)
124: Reaping success from disadvantage (Troy)
Lesson No. 009: Crime of wasted time (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard’s mind is placed into an alternate reality by an alien probe. While in the alternate reality, Picard lives a lifetime as a family man (husband and father) on a planet doomed to extinction because of its dying sun. After discovering the inevitable fate of the planet, Picard advises his grown daughter to seize the time now and to live her life to the fullest, for the time will never come again.
Lesson:
This is by no means a new idea or message. We have all grown up with the phrases tempus fugit, carpe diem, smell the roses, live for today, etc., each intended to remind us to make the best use of today.
What this episode manages to do, however, is to highlight how often we disregard this very simple concept as we go about our day-to-day lives, worrying about the minutia of today’s events and how they might negatively impact us tomorrow……until it is too late!
Only when confronted with irreversible catastrophe, do we finally pause, to view the reality of the passage of time - and it need not always be a dying sun. All too often, it is the passing of a family member, or a loved one, or a friend, or the news of fatal illness that can jolt us into appreciating the very brief time we all have here on earth. The loss of life is given to us as a mandate of birth. What we do with that life in the interim is up to us. For all the time wasted in useless, unproductive thoughts and actions, may we truly be ashamed.
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Lesson No. 020: Memories last (Data)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Cmdr. Data, a senior officer aboard the Enterprise and an android recognized as a sentient life form by Starfleet, creates a brand new android based on his own positronic architecture. He gives his new creation a female form, calls her Lal and introduces Lal to the crew as his child. Lal manages to surpass Data's capabilities and achieves emotion. Through a series of events, Lal expires. As the Captain expresses the crews' condolences to Data for the loss of Lal, Data explains that Lal had so enriched his life, that he could not just allow Lal to pass into oblivion. So, Data had transferred all of Lal's memories into his own memory banks, where she will be with him always.
Lesson:
At the end of the day, isn't that all we ever really have left of our loved ones who have passed on. We may have tangible items of their existence that we hold dear, or even build great monuments and structures dedicated to them, such as the Taj Mahal in India, but, in truth is it not in our treasured memories of our times shared with them that we hold most real? Could Data, who is a machine with no feelings or emotions and always on a quest to be human, have attained a more human quality than to have understood the true value of retaining the memory of a loved one?
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Lesson No. 023: We are never the villain
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
The war between the Federation and Cardassians is ended with a truce treaty signed by both sides. Despite the truce treaty, Capt. Maxwell of the Federation Starship Phoenix is single-handedly carrying out surprise fatal attacks on Cardassian vessels.
When Maxwell is caught and brought on board the Enterprise and reminded that the war is over, Maxwell exclaims that the war still continues, because the Cardassians live to make war and are not to be trusted. After being told that enemies always say that of each other, Maxwell denies this claim and exalts that the Federation does not start wars, does not make surprise attacks on defenseless outposts, killing women and children; the latter being a reference to the loss of his wife and child due to the Cardassians during the war.
Lesson:
Maxwell is a very pitiable character. We can easily sympathize with his rage due the loss of his family. The blinding scars of hatred that are etched so deeply on his heart cannot be easily removed and manage to only lead Maxwell down a path of revenge.
We lose sight of our humanity when we allow the rage within us to be focused on only revenge. We are blinded into believing that what we are doing is right, even though objectively we might be guilty of committing the very actions that we are opposing. Using rage as a catalyst to right a wrong is not wrong; paradoxically, however, judgment of right and wrong cannot be wise if clouded by rage.
Maxwell was fortunate in finding friends on the Enterprise to eventually guide him away from vengeance. We could all benefit from having such friends ourselves in our reality to come to our aid, when we stray down such destructive paths.
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Lesson No. 024: Finding comfort in hatred (Picard, O'Brian)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Having fought in the past war between the Federation and the Cardassians, Chief O’Brian has instilled in himself a strong hatred for Cardassians. Now the war is over, O’Brian says he likes the Cardassians fine, just that he knows them well enough to know that they can’t be trusted and one should always watch their back when they are around Cardassians.
Dismayed by O’Brian’s reaction, Capt. Picard advises the Chief that when one is angry for a long time, one gets comfortable with the anger, much like old leather, until one becomes so familiar with the hate, that they can’t remember ever feeling any other way.
Lesson:
Brilliant observation! Once the innocence of our childhood is lost, we all gain the ability to hate based on our prejudices. The degree of hate may differ from person to person, issue to issue, but we all do suffer from this malignancy. Our jaundiced view of other people, other places, other views and “-ism’s” so discolor our perceptions at times that we learn to comfortably accept this condition as a way of life for us. Even if we acknowledge and recognize our condition of hate, do we not usually dismiss it with the statement, “I am right and they are wrong!”?
May we each have a Picard in our life to remind us of a time, when we didn’t feel the hate.
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Lesson No. 027: Leave well enough alone (Data, Worf, Wesley)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf is noticed by his friends on board the Enterprise to be acting somewhat unusually out of sorts - quiet, brooding and a bit grouchy. Cmdr. Data, always the friend, believes Worf, as the only Klingon on board, may just be lonely and require a little reassurance. Thus, Data decides to help relieve Worf's anxiety through a little socialization and conversation, despite the warnings and cautions from Lt. Cmdr. Jeordi LaForge to basically leave Worf alone.
Upon approaching Worf in an attempt to initiate a conversation, Data is told by Worf (softly) “…with all due respect…” (loudly) “…BE GONE!…” (softly) “…sir.” After hastily retreating, Data tells LaForge that Worf appears quite sincere in his desire for solitude.
Lesson:
This very humorous scene helps to underline the question of when to offer help. There are many times in our lives when we see people in distress. Our human instinct should always propel us to offer aid in time of their need. However, there are times, when the individual struggling with an issue may just want to resolve the item by themself and not be appreciative of any outside interference. We all need our individual space sometimes.
So, take heed of LaForge’s caution to Data before stepping in to help someone, because the person you are seeking to help may be in the Greta Garbo frame of mind and “…just want to be alone” or worse, tell you in the cryptic message words of Capt. Kirk, “Mind your own business, Mr. Spock!”
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Lesson No. 037: Lose the fight before the battle (Riker, Guinan)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Cmdr. Riker, 2nd in command of the Enterprise, is made captain when Capt. Picard is captured by the alien Borg race. As the crew of the Enterprise prepare for battle with the Borg, Riker expresses uncertainty in his new role as captain. Given the Borg now have Picard and all of his knowledge and experience working in their favor, Riker frets the upcoming encounter with the Borg will be disastrous for the Enterprise. Riker is told that the crew expects to die in the battle with the Borg. Even though the crew trust and like Riker, they don’t believe that he can save them. Riker says he agrees with their sentiment. Riker is reminded by Guinan, a close trusted alien friend of Picard’s, that when a man is convinced he will die tomorrow, he will probably find a way to make it happen.
Lesson:
Self-prophesying doom is surely the biggest downfall of adulthood.
Have you ever noticed that a child can wake up one morning and say that he/she wants to be an astronaut and then proceed to think of a hundred things he/she can do as an astronaut, yet, as an adult, our first hundred thoughts will be why we can never accomplish that goal? Somewhere in our path to adulthood, we lose our childlike charm of thinking anything is possible. We find multiple ways to convince ourselves that the status quo is the only path for us and to try anything else is a waste of our time. True, as adults we are more aware of the realistic problems that may face us in our quest. But it is the realization of the problems as tangible physical walls that prevent us from even trying sometimes. Instead, when the problems are seen as challenges or hurdles to be overcome, do we really ascend to greatness.
In 1970, when the Apollo 13 mission to the moon came to an abrupt halt due to a rupture in an oxygen tank on board, leaving 3 humans stranded midway between the Earth and the Moon, most everyone thought all was lost. With no hope of getting a rescue ship out there, or means of sending any new supplies to them, the three astronauts were surely doomed. Fortunately, the hero engineers and scientists at NASA back then did not think that way. With rolled up sleeves, paper clips and rubber bands approach, they figured out a way to bring the three lost astronauts back home safe. They showed us how in the face of certain defeat, man can rise above his own defeatist attitude and accomplish almost anything.
Fortunately, Riker is of the same ilk as those men of 1970 NASA. Following Guinan’s advice and his own ingenuity, Riker manages to defeat the Picard guided Borg.
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Lesson No. 045: Duty over desire (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard finds himself very attracted to Kamala, an alien empathic life form known as a metamorph, while transporting her to her betrothed. The pending marriage of Kamala to her promised groom will bring about the cessation of hostilities between two warring planets. Given Kamala’s ‘unavailability’ condition, Picard manages to rein in his personal desires for Kamala. The situation turns even worse as Picard’s learns that Kamala has instinctively ‘bonded’ herself with him mentally. The ‘bonding’ is a one-time life event for a metamorph, whereby, the metamorph will become exactly as her mate wishes her to be, meeting his every need and desire. Unable to restrain himself any further, Picard tells Kamala that she cannot possibly go through with the pre-arranged marriage ceremony any longer. Kamala replies interrogatively, asking Picard if he would ask her to remain with him and allow two worlds to continue to war. Kamala’s allegiance to her duty reminds Picard of his own duty as he steps aside and gives Kamala away to her betrothed.
Lesson:
As human beings, most of our decisions are usually based on our emotional instincts. We may approach issues in a very technical and logical manner, trying to make a decision that is truly objective and devoid of any emotion or prejudice; however, in the end, we make our selections because we ‘like’ our choice the best. In very rare instances do we actually decide in favor of something that we may find disagreeable subjectively, yet, suitable objectively.
If we can accept that our decisions are either driven or highly impacted by our desires, then we can learn to control our decision process more effectively by discarding the desire aspect first. In doing so, we also remove a very nasty element from the decision process - our ego. In particular, as the decisions of people in great power positions are always at the mercy of their own egos, their devotion to duty and what is right and wrong can often be overridden by their selfish personal desires. Businesses have closed, nations have gone to war and empires have collapsed because crucial decisions were made based on personal desire.
Picard does not relinquish to his ego, by fighting for Kamala to be his and allow the awful consequences of war to perpetuate. He exercises the most extreme form of self control by not giving in to his deepest desires for Kamala, especially in the face knowing her reciprocation of his feelings towards her. Self-sacrifice in the name of duty is something every soldier knows and it is the one ego-restraining ability that everyone in power must learn.
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Lesson No. 046: Confusing the child (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf of the Klingon alien warrior race is having difficulty raising his pre-teen son alone while on board the Enterprise. Treating his little boy like any other adult Klingon warrior, Worf booms out commands to his son. In one instance, when Worf calls his son to dinner, his son tells him that he had promised someone else earlier that he would meet them at this hour. Worf’s son then asks him if he should break his promise. Worf clearly states that a Klingon never breaks his promise. Upon hearing this from his father, the child begins to walk away and exit the room. Worf immediately growls at his son, demanding to know where he is going. The son replies that he is following his father’s words, to not break a promise, and going off to keep his prior appointment. Worf retorts that he didn’t mean for him to keep his promise right now, but that for now, he needs to sit down and eat his dinner. The child replies that he is confused and does not understand what his father is saying. In true parental fashion, Worf tells his son to understand later, but for now, just sit and eat.
Lesson:
No one should ever presume to tell a parent how to rear their child. However, there are instances we have all been witness to situations where we are stunned at the sheer negligence or incompetency of parents in dealing with their children. These parents of banshee screaming, to fish-out-of-water thrashing tantrum children appear to us to be very inept at communicating, let alone controlling their off-springs. Most of the failure in communicating with a child usually boils down to the parent sending mixed signals to the child and, thereby, totally confusing the child and causing the child to ignore the parents instructions.
When a child misbehaves, if the parent reprimands the child, then out of sheer guilt, quickly hugs the child, the message of their reprimand is lost. If the parent punishes a child for wrong doing, then gives them a gift to stop the child’s crying, then the punishment loses all value. In this kind of parental behavior, the child quickly learns the parent is totally incapable of admonishing them without rewarding them in some way; thus, the act of misbehaving becomes the source of gaining favors for the child, instead of being penalized. Children, in spite of their pure innocence, are masters at communicating their wants and needs through various types of crying, even to the point of almost manipulating the parent into performing exactly per the child’s wishes.
The parent, on the other hand, often diminishes their control over the child by resorting to constant yelling at the child. Just as we adults learn to be totally dismissive of our grumpy, belligerent bosses, because we know it’s just the way they are and that there is no way they can fire us because we are so vital to the company, so children learn to ignore their parents who exercise lung power over common sense in communicating, because the child also quickly learns how vital they are to the parent.
There are no rules set in stone for raising a child. However, there are some very basic, common sense approaches (as mentioned above) for all parents to follow. If these approaches are not utilized properly, then they can turn even an outstanding Starfleet officer and iconic Klingon warrior into a befuddled, unfocused and unreliable guide for a child.
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Lesson No. 047: It's A Wonderful Life (Picard, Q)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard is fatally injured. Q, an omnipotent being gives Picard a second chance at life. Picard expresses regret for the many foolish actions of his own past and wishes he could have changed his ways when he was a youth. Q grants Picard his wish.
By reliving his second chance at youth in a more reserved, non-adventurous and less risky manner, Picard ends up back in his present time, not as the Captain of the Enterprise, but as only a Lt. Junior grade Astrophysics officer. Picard finds that he has become a dreary man in a tedious job, bereft of passion and imagination. Q reminds Picard that this was the outcome of what Picard had wanted. By being less arrogant in his youth and less undisciplined, Picard never had a brush with death, never faced his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is, or how important each moment is in life. Without any focus, plan or agenda, Picard drifted from one assignment to the next, never seizing any opportunities that came his way. Picard had learned to play it safe and he never got noticed by anyone.
Lesson:
Move over George Bailey, it’s time for Capt. Picard to say “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
At any point in our lives, we are always the total sum of all of our past actions. Outside of those events which are beyond our control, it is only our words and deeds in the past that have shaped the condition of our lives today. If we look back upon those incidents in our lives where we feel we could have perhaps acted wiser and avoided mistakes, then we are missing the big picture. It is only through our mistakes that we really learn the truth about ourselves. How we act in the face of having committed errors helps us to build our character and our virtues. Also, to shield oneself always within a comfort zone and not try anything new, just to avoid errors and mistakes, is to basically know only one kind of life. It is the exposure to uncertainty, risk and the unknown which challenges us to grow beyond our existing capabilities. Whereas the princess will be lost once she is outside of the castle walls, the struggling kid from the streets can survive and flourish in almost any environment.
There is nothing wrong in taking the path that is steadfast and conservative. To be a life-long factory worker, or office clerk, or school teacher are all praise worthy life paths to follow. They are the solid foundations of any society and they should never have any regrets in hindsight. However, for all those who choose the more risky paths to more ambitious goals, the price of success often includes taking more hazardous and, at times, even life endangering measures.
When all is said and done, you are the only one who can decide if the path chosen for you has been the right one. If you have any doubts about your life’s path, then make the changes you desire right now, yourself…and don’t wait for a Q to come along and give you a second chance at life.
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Lesson No. 048: Blinding conviction ignores truth (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
The crew of the Enterprise finds a human youth who had been previously captured by aliens and raised as one of their own. When the adoptive alien father of the youth demands the return of his son, Capt. Picard declines the request because Picard believes the youth belongs back with his own human kind. As the alien parent threatens to go to war against the entire Federation if need be, for the return of his son, the youth manages to stab Picard. After recovering from the wound, Picard tells the alien parent that a crime had been committed, confessing that the crime was not committed by the youth, but rather by Picard. In trying to help the youth recognize his origin and, in his desire to help the youth reacclimatize back into human society, Picard admits that he failed to see what the youth had wanted. As the youth wanted nothing more than to return to the only home he knew, Picard turns him over to his adoptive alien parent.
Lesson:
Sometimes, our convictions can be more blinding than a high noon sun on a clear day. Being totally self-assured that our opinion or decision is absolutely the only correct path available is usually a good sign that we have closed ourselves off from seeing the whole picture.
In any situation involving more than one person, there can easily be at least a minimum of two differing thoughts on the same issue. We would, therefore, be very negligent if we were to form our opinion or decision based solely on our own beliefs, knowledge and experience, while totally ignoring the view of the others involved.
It does take courage and humility to admit at least the plausibility of other views being more correct than our own. Even in the presence of both of these admirable human qualities, we may still fall victim to seeing things only in our own way. With objective vigilance and an ego in-check, perhaps we won’t have to be stabbed like Picard before we see the error of our ways.
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Lesson No. 052: Invite not Death (Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Counselor Troy’s mother, Lwaxana Troy, a lady in her late years, is a wonderful character full of joie de vivre, always living life to the fullest, at times loud, boisterous, gregarious and quite the extrovert. When she learns of an alien culture that condones and practices parricide of the elderly, she is quite upset. As she grows close to one of the aliens who is about to reach the age of 60, and must therefore commit suicide, she breaks down, feeling very vulnerable about her own mortality. Her daughter encourages her by reminding her that she is someone who will never die, before it is her time to die.
Lesson:
Don’t die before your time. We should all live by these words.
While hardships and disappointments are inevitable in everyone’s life, we must learn to endure these challenges and go on with our lives. We are given a one way ticket through this path of life, eventually ending in death. All of our achievements and fulfillments always occur only during our journeys through life. (True, some may gain fame post-death; however, their recognition is always based on their accomplishments during their lives.)
If we have but one life-journey to make, then why shorten it by accelerating to the end. While the failures and losses in our lives may work towards diminishing the quality of our lives, we should never voluntarily allow them to reduce the quantity of our lives. Every step we take, every decision we make and everything we do always has alternatives and may even offer opportunities to improve in the future.
Death, on the other hand, is unequivocal, immutable, and permanent, and, unfortunately, inevitable. So, let’s follow Troy’s implied advice and not give up on our journeys too quickly by foolishly inviting death for a visit any time before its designated appointed time.
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Lesson No. 053: Responsibility for elderly care (Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lwaxana Troy, Counselor Troy’s mother, gets involved in a heated argument with an alien scientist who is about to commit suicide according to his culture’s tradition of parricide. While Lwaxana finds the concept of old people killing themselves voluntarily abhorrent, the alien scientist defends his tradition by pointing out how it has solved the problem of the elderly on his world and that it does not place any dreadful burden on the children by having them take of their elderly parents. Lwaxana points out that, parents raise their children, care for them, suffer for them, and keep them from harm their whole lives; eventually it should be the children’s turn to take care of their parents. When she is told that no parent should ever expect to be paid back for the love they have given their children, she blasts back, “Why the hell not!”
Lesson:
As we approach the waning years of our lives, it is our human culture and tradition for our children and/or our society to care for us, until it is time for us to depart. So, is it fair for humans to burden their children with the responsibility of caring for their elderly parents?
If we use the argument of repayment of debt as owed by the children to their parents for raising them, then might the children not be well justified in arguing that since they had no say in their being born, raising them is not so much a debt incurred by them as it is a time-period pay down on a responsibility voluntarily undertaken by the parents? Additionally, wouldn’t the children consider the love and joy and happiness and pride they gave their parents in turn as substantial payoff for any hardships the parents may have faced while raising them? Finally, as the progenitors, aren’t the parents actually the one’s who are in debt to their children for continuing their family line and, thereby, giving the parents access to immortality?
In the final analysis, the idea of children caring for their elderly parents is really at the mercy of the parents and no one else, for it is the parents who train and educate the children. If raised the right way, the parents can instill in their children true love and devotion and a fervent need to be caring. If all else fails, parents can always use the fall back plan of encouraging their children with good old fashioned guilt.
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Lesson No. 054: Guilty of self-righteous indignation (Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
An alien scientist is working with the crew of the Enterprise to resuscitate the sun in their planetary system. He expresses his dismay that he will be unable to see the fruits of his research and efforts as he must kill himself very shortly upon reaching age 60, as is the custom and tradition of his culture. For centuries, this form of parricide has been the solution for population control and elderly care on his planet.
Lesson:
As totally horrific and unacceptable as suicide for the elderly as a solution may sound to us humans, let’s not be too self-righteous in our indignation of the culture and tradition of the alien race. We humans have been just as guilty of such despicable acts in the name of tradition and culture on our planet also.
The owning of fellow humans as slaves, the inequality of justice for people outside the ruling faith or political belief, the forbiddance of women to vote, the condemnation of divorce by religious orders, the burning to death of women marked as witches, genocide declared acceptable as cleansing, are just a few examples of how low we humans can sink in our morality by accepting these acts as tradition and customs of our human culture.
True, in time we eventually do rise above our own depravity and finally outlaw such behavior. However, if we can only see in hindsight the crimes we have committed against humanity, then what of the violations we are committing today in the name of acceptable tradition and custom? How long will we have to wait and how many will pay the cost, before we realize the error of our current misguided ways?
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Lesson No. 055: Rules are not absolute (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard is faced with the dilemma of taking an action which may either save or destroy lives on a planetary scale on an alien world. When a man arrives from the future with fore-knowledge of all events in the current time frame, Picard has the opportunity to learn from the man the outcome of his action. However, to use information from the man from the future about current events is a direct violation of the Starfleet Non-Interference Prime Directive regarding usage of knowledge of future events and tampering with the normal timeline.
Conflicted by his convictions in support of the Prime Directive, and his conscience demanding the saving of lives as the highest priority, Picard decides to violate the Prime Directive and asks for help from the man from the future.
Lesson:
Rules are in place to offer us guidance. They are never absolute. Whether it is rules of faith or rules of law, there may be times when the rules cannot apply and we need to violate the rules in favor of the good, as subjective as the “good” may be.
Man shall not kill another man is a basic tenet of many faiths; however, if a man enters a school and begins to randomly shoot innocent children, no one will condemn us for killing the man to stop the slaughter. Apartheid, a law constructed by man, mandating the separation of humans based on their race was deemed quite acceptable for decades, until man himself decided it was wrong and overturned the law. The very basic reason for Amendments to the US Constitution dictates that rules may not always address all situations and we should be open to expanding or even abolishing our rules as needed, always for the betterment of mankind.
Even though Picard is always a strong enforcer of the Starfleet rules and regulations, this time he sees the saving of millions of lives as more important than just strictly abiding by the rules.
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Lesson No. 057: Suppressing feelings and emotions (Data)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
A pre-teen human child loses both of his parents in a disaster aboard their space ship. When the crew of the Enterprise rescues the child, they find him to be totally withdrawn and afraid. As Lt. Cmdr. Data, an android, was the one who actually performed the rescue with his super human mechanical strength as witnessed by the child, the child finds comfort and support in Data. When the child realizes Data is an android, devoid of any emotion, he begins to emulate Data, changing his appearance to look like Data, making mechanical movements with his head like Data, and even copying Data’s speech pattern. Counselor Troy recognizes that the child is suffering from the loss of his parents, perhaps even feeling guilty, wrongfully, for having caused the accident that killed his parents and finding consolation in his pretend world by totally suppressing his emotions with his emulation of Data.
Lesson:
While younger children are able to easily escape into imaginary worlds to avoid addressing their bad feelings, older humans have a much more difficult time contending with such situations. As situations are encountered which give rise to bad feelings, such as guilt, sadness, depression, failure and disappointment, many tend to either sink heavily into the abyss of the emotion, or they totally subjugate their feelings by suppressing all emotional outlets. Both are extremely harmful.
By dwelling continuously on the bad feeling and spiraling downward out of control, many face the risk of looking upon death as a viable solution for themselves. Although there is an abundance of prescribed medication available to help halt these types of thoughts, the remedy is only temporary. The best medicine is contact with other humans in the world who can help bring focus on the endless positive possibilities and opportunities that life still has to offer.
On the other hand, those who continually bury their bad feelings and emotions by cramming them deeper and deeper into their consciousness, and pretend that they are not impacted by such bad thoughts are only fooling themselves. They are ticking emotional time bombs. All it takes is one slight wrong gesture from someone, one meaningless wrong remark overheard, or one toilet seat left up, and the individual will explode in vitriolic outbursts and maybe even physical violence.
Humans are emotional beings. We need to express our feelings. While positive emotions can elate us and carry us through many a difficult journey, negative emotions can hurt us if they are not dealt with properly and efficiently. One does not necessarily need therapy to overcome the negative thoughts and feelings. Sometimes, one just needs to communicate with a loved one, a friend or at times even a total stranger, just to vent some of the pressure building up inside.
The human condition is replete with good and bad emotions equally. As Data has stated at times, by not having any feelings as an android, he does not have to contend with the negative aspects of human emotion; however, he also misses out on happiness, love and even something as simple as laughter.
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Lesson No. 060: Root cause of child mis-behavior (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf’s is a Klingon, a race of warriors that value honor and courage above all. However, his pre-teen son is behaving very negatively by lying, stealing and even bullying others in his class. Worf proceeds to lecture his son on his bad attitude by explaining the value of honor and holding true to one’s words. He tells his son that a Klingon would rather face death than act dishonorably, for to show dishonor is to bring shame to the family name. His son quickly apologizes for his behavior and promises not to repeat his mistake. Soon after, the child is caught misbehaving again.
Lesson:
In most instances, children prefer to not be talked down to by adults. They usually respond more favorably if they feel that they are being understood by the adult and not being looked upon as just a mere child. However, the adult must remember that the child is still a child; that is, they are still unable to distinguish between all things good and bad, especially when it comes to behavior. Children learn from not only by that which is taught to them directly, but more importantly by what they experience day to day.
It is easy to understand why children exhibit attitudes detrimental to themselves when they come from homes with parents who perhaps argue all the time, or abuse alcohol or other controlled substances, or parade different “aunts” and “uncles” who stay the night. These children, unfortunately, are not offered the proper guidelines to help them understand what is and is not acceptable conduct.
What is not so easy to comprehend is when a child from a very caring and nurturing family environment pursues a harmful line of behavior that is contrary to their parents teachings. If the bad influence is not found within the family, then the child’s peers must be examined. Children are most receptive to the actions of their peers, whether good or bad, mostly out of a need to be accepted within the peer group. If the child’s friends are found to not be the cause either, then there is something much deeper occurring within the child causing them to act in a wrong manner and bringing attention to them selves. This is where admonishing the child for their behavior needs to be replaced with trying to root out the true motivations for their actions.
In the case of Lt. Worf, it becomes very clear that his son first felt abandoned by the untimely death of his mother, and then felt further unwanted when his father left him to be raised by his grand parents. His lashing out was his expression of frustration and anger at being left alone. When Lt. Worf asks his son to remain with him on board the Enterprise, his son’s demeanor reverses completely.
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Lesson No. 062: Overcoming personal bias for the right cause (Riker, Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf, of the Klingon warrior race, finds the androgynous alien race of a planet, which the Enterprise crew is visiting, to be quite unsettling, almost to the point of being repugnant to him. Yet, when Cmdr. Riker plans an unauthorized visit to the planet to rescue one of the aliens from wrongful captivity, Worf is the only one to come forward and volunteer to go with Riker on the mission. Despite the prospects of a court-martial for this unsanctioned mission, Worf tells Riker that as his commanding officer, Riker can order him not to go; however, he asks Riker not to give him that order, for a warrior does not let a friend go into danger alone.
Lesson:
Let’s face it, we all have prejudices. No matter how unbiased or saintly we may feel about ourselves, we all suffer from personal likes and dislikes of certain things based on pure subjectivity. Even though these antipathies may be founded in something far less parochial than the pedestrian race, religion, creed, etc., based bigotries, they nevertheless do manage to control our actions and reactions.
There are times, however, when mankind does manage to show signs of a greater consciousness by displaying dispassionate impartiality in his quest for the just cause, no matter what his personal beliefs. We prove that we can be better than we are when we step forward to fight for the right cause or for the rights of others, in spite of ourselves. To stand in support of those of whom we may disapprove to fight the common enemy or to support the right to speak for those who speak against everything we believe to be right and value most dearly, these are amongst the highest self-less qualities of humanity.
Just as the Klingon warrior welcomes the opportunity to battle beside his friend, no matter what his personal feelings, so we humans too can overcome our own prejudices to always fight the good fight.
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Lesson No. 063: Unacceptable traditions and customs (Riker, Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf, a Klingon warrior, is injured severely, resulting in a spinal injury that paralyzes both his legs. By Klingon tradition, a warrior, who can no longer walk is unable to fight, and must therefore, kill himself. The Klingon suicide must be performed with the aid of a friend. In this case, Worf reaches out to Cmdr. Riker to help him in the ritual. Riker is aghast at the thought of Worf killing himself. Worf tries his best to convince Riker to respect the Klingon way of life and, as his friend, help him to die the way of the warrior. Riker leaves and returns to Worf carrying the ritualistic Klingon blade used to end the warrior’s life. Pleased at first with Riker’s reappearance, Worf is quickly dismayed and shocked as Riker explains his findings on the Klingon ritual. With precise descriptive clarity Riker wields the blade showing how the suicide aide must first stab the blade deep into the heart of the warrior, then pull out the blade and wipe the blood from the blade on the aide’s own sleeve. However, as Riker found out in his research of Klingon tradition, the duty of the suicide aide must fall on the eldest son of the warrior. Worf’s son is only a pre-teen child, who happens to be on board. Unable to ever accept his son ever doing such a nefarious act, Worf decides not to commit suicide.
Lesson:
There is always place for maintaining tradition and customs in our human lives. Our tradition gives us a link to our ancestors and our respective cultures. We abide by these older customs almost instinctively, for to be without tradition and culture is to be without any foundation. We nurture our young with the knowledge of our heritage, much as the tree nourishes its leaves from the strength of its roots.
While our traditions do give us the building blocks upon which we grow, there are times when we must question some of the practices maintained within the culture. Any custom, which deprives the individual of their in-born rights as human beings to flourish and practice their own way of life, must be opposed. The individual’s right to maintain their own traditions and customs should always be permitted, as long as they in no way diminish the quality of the individual’s own life and does not negatively impact the lives of others.
As technology continues to bring the common man closer to his fellow man around the world, we find at times we do have vast differences in our respective traditions and cultures. As humans in charge of our own destinies, we always reserve the right to break with our traditions if it improves our quality of life.
Just as the ugly thought of Worf’s pre-teen son wiping the blood off the blade on his own sleeve after having stabbed his father through the heart caused Worf to reject his Klingon custom of suicide, hopefully, we humans can recognize the ugliness in some of our more ritualistic customs and abandon them just as promptly.
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Lesson No. 066: Managing hasty decisions (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
When the genetic engineered colonists of an alien world meet the crew of the Enterprise and learn of other worlds and civilizations, many voice their wish to leave their own world to experience the unknowns and the discoveries of non-genetically engineered life. However, in a genetically engineered world, each member plays a vital role in society and the absence of even a few will disrupt the stability of the colony, perhaps even leading to its destruction. As the restless members of the society gather to voice their strong desire to leave the planet, in spite of the consequences to the planet, their leader asks them to wait for at least 6 months, to help their society in adapting to their departure. This plea falls on deaf ears. Capt. Picard steps in to voice his concern that in the past 5 days, with the arrival of the Enterprise and her crew, the people of this world have only experienced the superficial side of life outside their planet. As emotions are running high, Picard asks the people wishing to leave to take adequate time to weigh the true impact and consequences of their decisions first, before committing themselves to leaving their world.
Lesson:
Haste makes waste is a fine proverb, leading at times to nothing but sheer disaster. We have all experienced, at one time or another, the incredible urge to respond to something immediately, with great passion. We may have received a communiqué (email, letter, phone call, etc.), observed a certain gesture from someone, overheard a comment, or been eyewitness to an incident occur, which caused us to have an immediate, passionate reaction to respond with vim and vigor. DON’T DO IT!
In almost all such scenarios, our passionate reaction almost always blinds us from seeing beyond our narrow tunnel vision view of the situation. More often then not, we are blinded from the real truth of the matter. While it is in the nature of humans to be mean, sarcastic, spiteful, and a dozen other malevolencies, it is quite possible that in our haste, we have criminalized the other party with these traits, when in actuality they are not guilty of any wrong doing. It is only our misperception of the other that led us to want to crucify them.
The only way to correctly respond in these situations is to allow for the transition of time. Time is our only recourse. Let the matter and the dust settle. When cooler heads prevail, then can we really see and gauge the good from the bad, the truth from the lie, and avoid making any serious mistake in judgment.
Picard’s advice to wait and weigh the consequences of leaving one’s home world is just as viable for us in our heat-of-the-moment decisions to leave our jobs, friends and families, or in retaliating incorrectly against those who are, in truth, not guilty of anything.
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Lesson No. 068: Crayon is mightier than warp drive (Guinan)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Guinan, an alien bartender on the Enterprise, remarks to a child who is playing with drawings, how a crayon can take one to far more places than a starship can.
Lesson:
Every parent in today’s high tech world must take note of this statement. In fact, they should make a banner out of this statement and post it on the walls of their children’s rooms.
While it is far easier to keep a child occupied with television, internet games, iPods, iPads, Wii’s, Xbox’s and a multitude of other hand held video devices, there is nothing more powerful than letting a child explore their imagination. With simple pencil/crayon to paper, a child can pour out their un-coalesced thoughts into glorious images of rocket ships and princesses and anything else their innocent minds can conjure up.
These wonderfully malleable minds can be so quickly stunted and corrupted by the sometimes stark violent and banal images in video games and even the desensitizing harmful actions of TV characters. Perhaps the worst influence of exposing a child to high tech distractions, is the ability of such instruments to totally draw in the child to the point of their totally ignoring the real world around them, often leading to self-sequestering, ostracizing by others in later school life and an inability to relate to other humans.
If, as it has been said, that a mind is a terrible thing to waste, then to inhibit a child’s imagination is to deprive the world of Einstein’s and Beethoven’s.
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Lesson No. 069: Strongest man is he who stands alone (Picard, Data)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Cmdr. Data, an android and senior officer aboard the Enterprise, works on an assignment with a scientist who has utilized artificial intelligence in developing a new set of tools called the ExoCom’s, The ExoCom, a small polyhedron object, is able to maneuver around and use instruments to perform menial tasks, which may be fataly dangerous to humans. Data soon realizes the ExoCom’s have become sentient and as such, he fights for their right to be treated as living beings and not just objects delegated to servitude.
When Capt. Picard and Lt. Cmdr. Jeordi become trapped in a situation where only the ExoCom’s can perform any possible chance of a rescue, Data stands alone in opposing the forced deployment of the ExoCom’s on the suicidal mission. Eventually, Picard and Jeordi are rescued by the ExoCom’s and in doing so the ExoCom’s prove themselves to be alive, especially as one of the ExoCom’s sacrifices his life to save the lives of its peers.
Afterwards, Data explains to Picard that it was very difficult for him to sanction the usage of the ExoCom’s to rescue Picard and Jeordi, even though he understood it meant possibly sacrificing both Picard’s and Jeordi’s lives. Data reminds Picard, that in the past, Picard had fought with Starfleet for the rights of Data to be recognized as sentient when no one else would stand up for him and it was in the same vein that Data stood alone in support of the ExoCom’s rights.
Lesson:
To fight for the rights of others who cannot stand up for themselves is a most valiant cause. As these battles are usually going against the established acceptable norms of society or culture, they can very easily end up harming personally, professionally, and at times even physically, the individual advocate for the cause. These hero advocates are never in the fight for the selfish reasons of seeking fame and fortune for themselves. Rather, they resolve themselves to the fight because there was no other option. Their glory comes in the satisfaction of righting a wrong, in spite of great risks to themselves.
History is replete with such advocate heroes, from President Abraham Lincoln, who eventually faced death in his struggle for the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves, to the fictional character Atticus Finch in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, defending the field worker, Tom Robinson, a metaphoric ‘mockingbird’ who is wrongfully accused of a crime, to Susan Brownell Anthony, prominent civil rights leader and a key player in the Women’s Suffrage movement in the US, who did not live to see the fruits of her labor by the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920 allowing women the right to vote.
Henrik Ibsen, the 19th century playwright said “The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone.” Within each of us is this strength, willing to fight for the wronged, the down-trodden, the underdog, oft forgotten and dismissed members of our society. What most of us lack is the passion for the cause which would allow us to look beyond our comfort zones of regular meals, nightly TV, air conditioned environments and convenient shopping malls.
Isn’t it ironic that we humans can so easily decide to not step-up to fight for the right cause, yet, as Picard noted to Data, the android, Data’s decision to fight for the rights of the ExoCom’s was the most human decision Data ever made.
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Lesson No. 070: Yesterday's enemy, today's friend (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf, a Klingon warrior and Chief Security Officer on the Enterprise, arrives at a sequestered Romulan held former prison planet where Klingons and Romulans now live together in harmony. Worf is unable to accept that Romulans and Klingons, who are sworn blood enemies for centuries, can now co-exist here in this manner. The Romulan leader tells Worf that he does not expect for Worf to understand why things are the way they are on this planet as Worf is set in the old ways of hatred between the two cultures.
Lesson:
In the history of mankind, our propensity has been to make enemies of each other based on religion, politics, amassing wealth and property. All of which is grounded in suspicion, envy and hatred of others who are ‘different’ from us and our ways of life. War, with its catastrophic results in loss of lives and destruction of cultures and entire civilizations, is always the inevitable consequence of our folly.
Strangely though, with the passage of time, once our battles have been fought, we find common grounds for dialogue, commerce, and even alliances with our former enemies. Within just a century, our recent memories can recall the sheer animosity and rage that most in the US felt towards the Germans, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Vietnamese. Yet today, all of the aforementioned live and prosper in the US, living side by side with their former enemies.
The opposite is also true. In more recent history, with the fall of Shah Pahlavi in Iran and the ensuing rise in tensions between Iran and the US, Iran’s neighboring enemy Iraq quickly became an ally of the US. Later, as the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the US quickly allied with the locals in Afghanistan to oppose the invading forces. However, as the tides of man’s politics always manages to wash away any castles built in unity, so it was to be that former allies would eventually battle each other another day.
In the world of Star Trek, the alien Organian prediction made to Capt. Kirk, that one day the Klingons and Humans will become friends, is realized in the time of Capt. Picard and Lt. Worf, but only after the cost of millions of lives on both sides. The obvious parallel path between the Klingon/Human struggles and the Klingon/Romulan feud apparently escapes Lt. Worf. Minds set in the old ways, blinded by hatred, prejudice and fear can never see beyond their own limited unenlightened views.
As we evolve with each generation, some manage to see beyond our own self-destructive nature and try to encourage harmony between disparate groups. However, for the most part, we manage to hold on to our prejudices and promote separation within humanity in self-righteous pontification and, ironically enough, in the name of peace. For true global peace to ever reign supreme in our world, akin to the utopian view of Gene Roddenberry, the founder of Star Trek, the path to a unified world cannot be brought about by our leaders; the process must first begin within each of us.
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Lesson No. 071: Cultural heritage and assimilation (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
On a Romulan held former prison planet, Klingons and Romulans have lived together peacefully for decades. However, as Lt. Worf, the Klingon Chief of Security on board the Enterprise, arrives on the planet, he quickly learns that the Klingon culture is totally suppressed by the local Klingons and nothing about the true Klingon warrior ways of life are taught to the Klingon young. As Worf begins telling the stories of the Klingon home world and the Klingon ways of the warrior to the younger generation of Klingons on the planet, the youth are compelled and invigorated by Worf’s words of honor and pride in the Klingon culture.
Lesson:
As mankind grows ever closer together, due mostly to technology, we experience the wide variety of cultures that exists in our world today at a much faster pace. In the US, which is often considered to be the largest melting pot of cultures on our planet, one can experience the wonderful diversification of mankind, sometimes within just a single neighborhood. Growing up in mixed communities offers each individual an opportunity to learn and absorb parts of other cultures.
As new generations are introduced or born into such multi-cultural environments, it is only natural that assimilation into the local inhabitant’s culture prevails. However, such assimilation does not preclude the nurturing of one’s own culture, that which has been gained by heritage. In the US, promotion of one’s own culture is encouraged through distinct religious organizations, language classes, community gatherings and festivals.
To deliberately abort the culture, and especially language, of one’s heritage is to deprive the individual of an additional dimension and depth to their lives. Children are always encouraged to expand their horizons of learning by experiencing sports, music, painting, etc, to make them more compatible with the world around them. Learning of their cultural heritage and former mother tongue can be considered as just another facet of their education. Just as experiencing cultures beyond our own gains us insights into our fellow humans, the opposite is also true, and that excluding and ignoring other cultures only segregate us from each other.
If indeed we were scattered all over the world, cursed with different languages as a mandate to separate us (as per the story of the Tower of Babel), then we had better learn to continue to translate each others words and understand each others cultural aspects of life, if we are to continue to grow into a unified world. Appreciating the variety in mankind does not perpetuate separation between us; rather, the bi-lingual, bi-cultural individual helps us to bridge the gaps between us.
The very basis of Vulcan philosophy is the acknowledgment and acceptance of the vast variable nature of the Universe, symbolized by the IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations). We humans are fortunate enough to celebrate the IDIC right here on our home world, everyday, within our own communities.
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Lesson No. 072: Life preservers of old hatreds (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
On a planet where historical rival races, the Klingons and the Romulans, have learned to live together, Lt. Worf, a proud Klingon warrior, meets a Klingon girl for whom he has feelings. Upon discovering the girl has a Romulan father, Worf immediately rejects her. Worf openly tells the girl that he finds the union of her parents to be obscene and unacceptable. The girl defends the way of life on her planet and tries to make Worf understand that the Klingons and Romulans on her world have overcome their blinding prejudices and learned to live together in peace. She pleads with Worf by pointing out that he had liked her before finding out that she was half-Romulan, and now, can he not leave his old hatreds behind and continue to accept her as she is. Worf admits he is not sure that he can.
Lesson:
None of us are ever born with bigotry and prejudices of other cultures and other people pre-programmed into us. Just like math and science, we have to be taught these particularly disgusting human traits. Courtesy of every self-serving parent, teacher, political, community and religious leader, we grow up absorbing their hatred of others and make them our own. We make our wonderful gift of life very petty by working hard to diminish the value of others not based on their deeds or words, but rather based on their appearances and beliefs.
It appears that only time is the true cure for these afflictions.
Where we once stood proud to condemn Jews in Europe, locked arm-in-arm to block black American children from entering all-white schools in the US, and made pariahs out of those who would ever dare to marry outside of their own group, we now stand with our heads lowered in shame for our past disgrace.
Unfortunately, not all heads are yet lowered together in unison. As some clutch to their old bigotries as life preservers for their way of life, so new hatreds are borne by the next generation and we continue further away from achieving a unified people on our planet.
For those of us, who like Worf, believe that we are not able to change from our old ways of hatred, we remain as the lowest form of so-called intelligent life on our planet, diminutive in our status, composed of flesh, blood and bones and a wasted, closed-mind. When our love and hate of each other becomes based only on actions and not presuppositions, only then we will be on the threshold of a brand new trek.
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Lesson No. 074: Is ignorance really bliss (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf, the proud Klingon warrior and Chief of Security on board the Enterprise finds himself on a secluded former Romulan prison planet, where Klingons and Romulans now live together in peace. Worf discovers that the younger Klingon generation has forgotten the old ways of the Klingon culture. When Worf begins to revive the deep rooted Klingon warrior nature within the Klingon youths, he disrupts the balance within the community and is sentenced to death by the ruling Romulans. A half-Klingon, half-Romulan female who grows close to Worf, cries out in frustration by asking Worf rhetorically why he ever came to their planet; the local Klingons were so happy that they were separated from the Klingon home world and they didn’t know there was anything missing in their lives…until Worf showed up.
Lesson:
Ignorance may be bliss, but it is usually advocated by those in power wanting to retain their control over others. Only by learning that there is something “better or more” than what we currently have, do we aspire to improve our lives and our world around us. With the knowledge of a better way, where we were once content with our daily lives, we learn to become dissatisfied with our situation and strive to improve our lot. Just as the appearance of endless opportunities of other lands drive many to emigrate from their own country, so do the prospects of greater financial rewards, promotions and corner offices drive many to seek career growth outside of their own organization.
The desire to grow and do better is a very human trait based on our levels of education, knowledge and experience. To try to restrain this quality has caused kingdoms to be overthrown, governments to fall and many of man’s own laws to be abolished.
With today’s global knowledge base so readily available to everyone at the touch of a fingertip, we can no longer hide from the reality of vastly differentiating lifestyles between the poor, the middle class, the rich and the super rich. Our knowledge in this case satiates us with dissatisfaction, leaving us always wanting more. What drives us to success also plunges us to depths of discontent if we fail to achieve. Not knowing what we are missing can, therefore, sometimes be quite an attractive asset, if the missing is truly unattainable.
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Lesson No. 076: Faith is not religion (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Worf, a proud Klingon Warrior and Chief of Security on the Enterprise, begins to question his belief in his Klingon holy faith. Worf travels to the holiest of Klingon places where he performs days of Klingon rituals meant to help Klingons in discovering their faith through signs envisioned. After a while, as Worf resigns himself to failure in his efforts and prepares to leave, one of the elder Klingon priests tries to advice Worf on his quest. The priest tells Worf not to get discouraged so easily, and that his failure was in not seeking the right question to ask first, before looking for answers. He tells Worf that the truth can only be found by opening one’s heart and not clouding the mind with doubt and hesitation.
Lesson:
Faith is perhaps the most personal of human conditions. While we may find it acceptable to not be totally honest on all occasions with others, including family, friends and loved ones, we must always be completely and brutally truthful when it comes to being honest with ourselves and our faith. To seek one’s faith must be a pure journey, devoid of all distractions to the mind and the heart, and all thoughts of material things, personal passions and desires must be discarded.
Whether you identify your faith through providence, deity or God, is really irrelevant. These are just labels, as are the thousands of other names by which every culture describes their faith. If you believe that mankind is bound together by the highest of powers, then you have faith in something far beyond our normal existence and perhaps, even our understanding. Discussions and questions of faith cannot be conducted using logic or scientific analysis for faith is based in personal belief. Our connection to our God, through our faith, is immutable.
However, if logic is applied in a priori acceptance of God, and in the fact that we are all held equal before our God, then it is undeniable that no one individual can have a better relationship or connection to God than anyone else; that is, no one knows God any better than you. This is where faith and religion separate.
Our religions give us guideline for living our lives. Our keepers of our religion administer the written words and stories of our religion to help us to better understand these guidelines. This is a wonderful concept. It is, also, however, a business concept. This may be a very difficult conclusion to accept for one’s own religion, and may be not so difficult when it is applied to some other religion, for one culture’s scripture is another culture’s mythology.
Faith is each man’s individual connection to God, while religion is man’s attempt to quantify, clarify and distribute God’s words in a business plan based on administering or exploiting faith. Through religion we accept placing other men above and ahead of ourselves in their ability to better connect with God than us. This is unwarranted. It may be true that these Holy men may be able to discuss the written words better than some of us; however, God does not need Holy men as translators or middle men to reach each of us. There is nothing wrong in following these Holy men of God, as long as we realize that we are each just as worthy of reaching God by ourselves as anyone else who presumes to show us the right path.
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Lesson No. 077: Recognizing Omniscience (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Kahless, who is the revered, holy founder of the Klingon race and culture, and its first emperor, returns to reunite the Klingon people, 1500 years after his death. Amongst Klingons, his second coming is quickly accepted by some, while others, mostly those in power, reject his resurrection by denouncing him as a fraud. Kahless proves by his knowledge that he is who he says he is and that he has returned because the Klingon race has lost its true honorable warrior path with petty bickering and corruption. The increase of factions on both sides of Kahless can easily plunge the Klingon Empire into a civil war. When the truth is learned that Kahless is actually a clone, preprogrammed with all of the original Kahless’ stories and ways, a decision is made to allow the cloned Kahless to hold the honorary title of Emperor to help guide the people, and let the power of governing the Klingon Empire still remain within the ruling council and its leader.
Lesson:
Man’s true bond with his own faith is an immeasurable force. In times of need and critical situations, man always turns to his own faith for help, and especially when facing death, man is invariably heard calling out to his personal deity. The (Christian) Joab-like stories of man’s unswerving faith to his God perpetuate in various forms through out many beliefs. Similarly, almost all beliefs share an apocalyptical future when the respective Saviors of each faith are expected to return to salvage mankind and start life on Earth all over again in some manner. It is only our leap of faith, which tells us that we will actually be able to recognize such a Return.
Practicality, empirical data and logic can never be used to validate such an event. Given this lack of any factual evidence, it is very easy for each of us to quickly deride and dismiss such an occurrence within any faith outside of our own. Unfortunately, the exact same arguments can be used by all those in power within one’s own faith, who would not wish to lose their existing control over their societies and communities to a new found God-sent Leader.
It does not take a seer to foretell what the reaction of mankind will be to Omniscience in the form of humans. We just have to look at our own respective individual cultural histories to see our inability to recognize when we are in the presence of righteous Omniscient leadership, and to accept that there will always be men in power who will suppress and persecute such Leaders.
As is the case in all discussions of faith, it is only the pure strength of our personal beliefs that can guide us down the right path, and more often than not, we usually end up with more questions than answers.
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Lesson No. 083: Repressed or confabulated memories (Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
After communicating telepathically voluntarily with an alien telepath Lwaxana Troy, mother of Counselor Deanna Troy, falls into a coma. The telepathic interaction accidently surfaced long suppressed dark memories within Lwaxana of her other child being lost to drowning, thereby causing the coma. Once she confronts the dreaded dark secret of her past with the telepathic help from her daughter Deanna Troy, she comes out of the coma
Lesson:
There are times in life when we are confronted by events and incidents which prove unsettling and even traumatic to us. Abuse as a child, loss of a loved one, a fatal argument, a heinous crime, discovery of a lie, are just some examples of issues and happenings that we may all wish to not ever remember. It is our fervent desire to forget such times or our mental self-preservation faculties that sometimes trigger suppression of our memories of these distressful events. Real suppressed or repressed memories may be difficult to recognize from fabricated or confabulated memories. These types of hidden ailments can, at many times, be diagnosed and treated by proper professional medical and psychological attention.
The gnawing sensation that there is something wrong with oneself, and yet totally unrecognizable in either manifestation or cause, may signal a repressed memory situation. However, proper medical advice ought to be sought out before jumping to such conclusions. If there is actual evidence of repressed memories, then the discovery of those memories and the possible surfacing images of violence in the past must be handled with the guidance of proper licensed medical and psychological help. These are not matters to be trifled with alone. Having a Deanna Troy Counselor at hand is highly recommended.
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Lesson No. 094: Unfair treatment for already-paid-for past mistakes (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
When Capt. Picard blasts a new Ensign recruit on board the Enterprise for taking part in the cover-up of an accident at Starfleet Academy, which resulted in the death of a cadet, the Ensign just stands there and does not respond to the captain. Later, thanks to guidance from her instructor Lt. Worf, the Ensign defends herself against Picard. She tells Picard that she had already taken her punishment and paid her dues at Starfleet for her faulty actions and that perhaps the Captain should not have accepted her assignment to the Enterprise if he felt so negatively towards her.
Lesson:
If you have truly paid the price for your accidental mistakes, then there is no need to continually keep your head lowered in guilt. Accidents and mistakes happen. They are a part of our reality. If you have learned from your mistake and have paid any direct or indirect punishment for your mistake, then be willing to move on with your life and not dwell on the mistake.
When you accidently drive in excess of the posted speed limit, you are issued a traffic ticket, which you pay and accept the consequences of increased insurance rates. This event does not stop you from driving; rather it teaches you to be better and more careful driver in the future. In the same vein, if you should accidently commit a mistake at work which proves harmful in some manner to the organization, then admitting to the mistake, taking your punishment and learning from the mistake only makes you a better resource for the company.
Bottom line is, do not allow yourself to be wrongfully victimized by others for your accidental mistake, for, in most cases, only you can stand up for yourself.
In the case of the Ensign, Picard explains to her that he previously chastised her deliberately to see if she will stand up for herself, and that he had in fact personally requested her being assigned to the Enterprise precisely for her situation, so that he could ensure that she would not treated unfairly by others for her past actions. If only we all had such mentoring managers.
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Lesson No. 095: Death is not the answer (Data)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Cmdr. Data, an android, explains how during the initial time of his activation, it was very difficult for him to properly integrate new commands into his existing system. This accumulation of information was proving so problematic that he considered it might be safer and easier to do a complete shut down of his systems and performing an initial reboot. However, such an action would permanently erase all of his memories, in effect, simulate committing suicide. Instead Data chose to treat the information integration problems as challenges to meet rather than as insurmountable obstacles.
Lesson:
At times when the problems in our lives tend to overwhelm us with despair and hopelessness, it may seem easier and perhaps even more acceptable to think about ending all of our problems at one time with just one quick and simple life ending act. This is, however, never the right answer. Not only is it considered illegal in most of man’s laws and many faiths and beliefs, but it is also a most cowardly way to solve problems.
Problems of this extreme nature, which cause such devastating thoughts, must be faced head on and confronted with the total sum of one’s knowledge and experiences, and without doubt, with the help of family, friends and experts in the problem field. No matter how severe and relentless an enemy the problem is, our greatest weapon in the fight is our mind. By choosing to combat the problem foe, instead of surrendering to it, we earn our right to life.
When the problems appear indomitable, we need to remember Anne Frank and Stephen Hawkins and realize that even in the face of imminent death or lifelong incapacity, we humans have the ability to fight to survive, to live and fight yet another day.
Data’s realization of the importance of maintaining the continuity of his existence only serves to remind us that as humans we quite often take our gift of sentient life for granted, and that instead of cherishing it and fighting with our last breath to hold on to it, we sometimes fall prey to simply squandering it.
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Lesson No. 100: The omnipotent mind (Picard, Q)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Q, an omnipotent alien provocateur, challenges Picard to open up his mind by presenting Picard with a paradox whereby a space-time anomaly begins in the future and ends by growing in the past, in essence going in reverse time. By resolving this confounding conundrum, Picard manages to catch a glimpse, for a brief moment, of the enormous possibilities of true exploration of existence through the mind and not limited by starships and technology.
Lesson:
The exploration of existence can never be achieved by minds that are closed in by boundaries. ‘Thinking outside of the box’ is not just a figure of speech, it should be a mandate of life. We humans are clearly limited in what we can do, not only by the physical confines of our body, but also by the physical laws that govern our universe. However, where once humans thought they could never fly as the bird in the sky, we now fly the sky’s and have reached outside the gravitational grasp of our planet, walked on our lunar neighbor’s soil, and hurtled our instruments far outside of our own solar system into our galaxy. All of this we did because of those who came before us and were able to see beyond their limitations.
Our greatest key to everything we do in life is our mind. Our mind transcends the physical 3-dimensionality of space, and the 4th-dimension of space-time. We can envision the abstract and the intangible. We can place our thoughts in a myriad of locations in space and time simultaneously, and conduct our thought transactions at the speed of light.
The truly fantastic abilities of our mind to create such theoretical concepts as anti-time, gravitons, tachyon and the Higgs boson particle, to attempt to explain our existence, only highlights that our thoughts are boundless in realm and fluid in motion. Not only can our minds shatter the ‘box’ restrictions, but we can be infinite in our thoughts of not just one universe, but multi-verses, and life, beyond just our own.
Q may be omnipotent in abilities, but we humans can at least attempt to be omnipotent in our thoughts.
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Lesson No. 105: Circularity of apprehension, worry, stress and anxiety (Worf, Wesley)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Wesley Crusher is undergoing final testing to enter Starfleet Academy. While he excels at all of the technical tests, he fears the final exam, which is known as the ‘psych’ test. This test is intended to evaluate everyone on their darkest personal fears and is of an unknown nature and different in context for each candidate. His trepidations over what the test might be causes Wesley anxiety and he struggles to deal with his panic. Lt. Worf, a seasoned officer, seeing Wesley’s concerns tells Wesley that thinking about things over which you have no control only wastes energy and creates its own enemy.
Lesson:
We all have to grapple with this monster almost everyday of our lives. There are always an abundant number of events that occur in our lives where we have absolutely no control over the process or are unable to impact the outcome in any manner, whatsoever. From boarding a plane for a flight, to undergoing surgery, to eventually finding the right mate for marriage, to conceiving life, we do put our lives in the hands of others or in those of fate. While it is true that we can take measures, in certain cases, to increase the probability of our success, we are, nevertheless, still not ever in full control of our own destiny. There is perhaps no better example of how much our lives are really not in our control than to consider the truly random and unpredictable nature of death. No matter what precautions one may take to delay death, there is still no way for us to control the timing of its occurrence, outside of any premeditated action.
For those who worry about disasters and failures over things which they have no control, they enter into a vicious cycle of apprehension and distress, which in turn creates more worst case scenarios to ponder, and in turn add more to the worry and anxiety.
So, once we have done everything possible that is within the realm of our influence to impact a situation, we need to accept that the next step will occur outside of our control no matter what else we may do and the best we can do is to be prepared to react to the consequences. By accepting this relinquishing of control over events outside of our influence, we distance ourselves from worry, anxiety and self-doubt over what may happen and focus more readily on what our actions and contingency plans might be based on the possible different outcome scenarios.
Outside of the harmful mental and physical problems that can arise from the stress of worrying about things not in your control, you will often find that the time devoted to the worrying has managed to make you miss out on many of the good things that occur in your life. Time spent unwisely and fruitlessly, unfortunately, can never be regained.
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Lesson No. 106: The only one with whom we must compete (Picard, Wesley)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Wesley Crusher fails in his first attempt to get into Starfleet Academy. He feels he failed Capt. Picard and everyone on board the Enterprise. Picard asks Wesley if he tried his absolute best in the tests. Wesley replies that he did. Picard then asks Wesley if he expects to improve in his tests next year. Wesley replies yes. Picard then advises Wesley that the only person you are truly ever competing with is yourself; you have to measure your own successes and failures from within and not from how others feel or think you did.
Lesson:
Too many people gauge their own success by comparison to others. Keeping up with the Jones next door or seeking a higher promotion at your job just because your friend got one are but only two examples of a truly shallow person. This person will forever be dissatisfied with their life. This person is convinced that there is always someone else doing better than them, which ends up making the person feel inferior about them self. By continually trying to compete with peers, friends and family, the individual is condemned to fail as all of their successes will always turn to failure as soon as the next comparatively better person or better situation comes along.
The absolute truth is that there is only one person with whom you must always compete - that is, yourself.
No matter what state of knowledge or skill you have reached on any topic, you must always strive to do better next time. Once you have done your best, then there is no need to feel any self-doubt or apprehension in the results. No matter what the results, if there is absolutely nothing more that you could have done, then you must accept the conclusions. If failure is the result, then learn from the mistakes made, if any, and be ready to do better next time.
Our true tests are always within ourselves first. We can always make ourselves feel superior by comparing ourselves to some one lesser than us, or make ourselves feel inferior by comparing ourselves to someone better than us. Regardless of the direction of the comparison, the end result is irrelevant as the basis for the comparison is arguably variable.
In the classic movie, The Big Country (1958), the main character of Jim McKay played by Gregory Peck is an Easterner, former sea-captain, recently moved to the old West. He is confronted by many instances where others provoke him into situations for their own benefit and amusement. However, McKay always walks away from those situations, even at the cost appearing cowardly. McKay does so because he has nothing to prove to others. He is firmly confident in himself and chooses to tackle those situations only when they help him to improve himself, or get his point across. Whether it’s trying to ride a wild horse or fighting hand-to-hand with the ranch foreman, McKay does so without attracting attention and glory to him self. He exemplifies Picard’s statement of measuring your own successes and failures from within and not from how others feel or think you did.
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Lesson No. 107: Resisting the changing wind (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
A renegade Klingon, set in the old ways of the Klingon warrior traditions of the hunter and prey, finds the new ways of alliance and peace with the former enemy, the Federation, unacceptable. While on board the Enterprise, the renegade Klingon tries to convince Lt. Worf, a Klingon and Starfleet officer, to betray the Federation and join him in his quest for the old ways of Klingon glory by helping him to commandeer the battle bridge of the Enterprise. While the renegade Klingon speaks of the thirst of the warrior for battle, Worf tells his fellow Klingon that he looks for battles in the wrong place and that the true test of a warrior is not without, but within, inside one’s own heart, overcoming one’s own weaknesses is the greatest battle for the warrior, and to talk of glory, conquests and creating legends mean nothing without duty, honor and loyalty, without all of which a warrior is nothing.
Lesson:
While the old adage of “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.” may hold true for dogs, we should never extend the metaphor to humans. Human beings are intelligent, thinking, adaptive life forms - well, most are!
Those people, who find new changes in their life style, community or environment unacceptable, will invariably oppose the new views which are often held at first by only a minority section of the population. Their opposition firmly entrenches them in their belief that their view point is absolutely correct. In trying to bring credibility to their movement to resist changes, they will espouse the righteousness of their chosen path by declaring they are aligned with their deity, their God, in their steadfastness. As time passes and the voice of the minority sweeps across the land and becomes the voice of the majority, these misguided few will continue in their reverence for the old ways, thus, in turn becoming the minority themselves.
It is inevitable, that with the passage of time, comes changes in established ways of life, and that, which was once quite acceptable can now no longer be tolerated, and vice versa.
In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood in defiance of a federal government ruling by blocking the entrance of African-American students into the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. His battle cry of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” was quite acceptable to the local white-majority at that time. After multiple failed attempts to win a US Presidential election and following an assassination attempt on his life by Arthur Bremer, a white-man seeking celebrity status, which left Wallace a paraplegic, the man who once stood for segregation of the races, had changed his ways so much over 20 years that he actually received an overwhelming number of African-American voters’ support to become the Governor of Alabama one final time in 1983.
People who do not grow and progress with changes in time and culture, holding on firmly to their old prejudices, old differences, and old grudges are very a sad lot who should be pitied. Blinded by bigotry and ignorance, people can separate themselves from society until they become the evil they themselves had originally sought to protest. Whether the age old conflict is between races, religions, cultures, or even between humans and aliens, we should pay heed to Worf’s observation of the misguided always looking for battle in the wrong places.
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Lesson No. 108: From life to death to … (Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
When a Klingon warrior dies, other Klingons gather around the dying Klingon and perform the Klingon death ritual where all the Klingons present scream out a gut wrenching roar simultaneously. This is the Klingon way of warning the dead that a Klingon warrior is about to enter their realm. After death, the Klingons treat the remaining body as just an empty shell, devoid of the spirit and may be disposed of in any convenient manner available.
Lesson:
In many long established cultures, death is seen as just a transition from our current state of life to another state, one, which we are yet unable to comprehend from this side. The transition from our current living state into the next state is believed to involve only the human spirit or soul or life energy, and never the physical body.
While the truth of the matter may never be known until we each face our own time of ‘transition’, we can conjecture, however, that if life does in fact conform to the physical laws of nature, then certain empirical laws of physics must also hold true for life. In particular, the laws of the conservation of energy in an isolated or closed system, where energy is never created nor destroyed but only transformed from one state into another and remaining constant or conserved over time, perhaps may also be applied to our life energy.
The relationship between matter and energy shows us vividly how ice can be heated into water, then boiled into vapor, then cooled back down to water, and frozen back to ice, in a never ending cycle. This shows us that energy, matter and information within our universe is never really lost, just transformed, while still retaining all of its elementary pieces. It is not too difficult to extrapolate these laws to also include life energy.
Consider the transition of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Here we see two distinctly different states of physical life. The key questions to address here are the before and after states. Before the transition, does the caterpillar know that it will become a butterfly, and after the transformation, does the butterfly remember it was once a caterpillar?
We can bring the question of transition closer to home by asking ourselves if we remember what it was like to be living in a totally liquid environment before we were delivered into this world, and if we were aware of the air breathing life which was awaiting us. Through observation of others and via documented birthing videos of ourselves, we have physical, validated proof that we undergo a cataclysmic event in the transition of our life energy in the process known as birth. If our beginning of this state of our life was the result of a transition, then could the end of our current state of life, known as death, be nothing more than just another transition?
Where we came from and where we go are two questions that no one can really answer. Manifestos and doctrines of many religions have the luxury of easily providing answers to these questions without submitting any conclusive evidence as support, because they rely on belief as the only required answer. It may very well be that one of the boundary conditions of life is to never allow the secrets of post-death state to be revealed to us in this life.
It would be a real waste if this life were to be a one shot deal, which ends in oblivion of nothingness and non-existence with absolutely no continuation following death. Fortunately, the universe hates waste.
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Lesson No. 110: Dwelling in the past (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard tries to come to grips with old unresolved feelings about an old girlfriend he had stood up in Paris, France many years earlier, before he took command of the Enterprise. He uses the Holodeck to recreate the old Paris environment so as to address his issues properly through dialog with a Holo-image of his former girlfriend in the original setting. After initiating the conversation regarding his old girlfriend, Picard stops the Holodeck simulation abruptly, exclaiming, “enough of this self-indulgence” and exits the Holodeck, returning to duty.
Lesson:
With the passage of time, we sometimes come to realize that there may have been occasions in our lives, in the past, where we perhaps could have done better, acted differently, said kinder and more appropriate words, or even behaved more empathically in certain situations. This realization shows growth in maturity and a glance at gaining a modicum of wisdom. While this ascension in better understanding oneself is to be highly encouraged, there is an underlying, unseen trap that must be avoided.
Recognizing that we perhaps might have handled a past situation differently often will draw us into creating multiple scenarios with alternate outcomes in our mind, each of which leads to satisfy us better. While this mental play of images and words may serve in pleasing us, they manage to pull us in further and further into self-directed thoughts and conclusions that, before long, have detracted totally from reality.
Addressing our past issues and learning from our mistakes helps us to do and be better in the future. Dwelling too long on issues in the past serves no purpose as we are powerless to change past events. Even with the time-travel capabilities of the starship Enterprise at his disposal, Picard knows that he is unable to change his past history. Better to just accept our past actions, learn from our mistakes and move on.
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Lesson No. 111: Trust of true friendship (Picard, Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard receives a private communiqué from some his oldest friends, all of whom are Captains in Starfleet now, and were all once virtually inseparable as very close friends. The private message instructs Picard to meet secretly with his fellow Captains so that they can warn him of a possible high level conspiracy underway at Starfleet. When reviewing this extraordinary request with Counselor Troy on board the Enterprise, Troy points out to Picard that his friends’ conduct has violated Starfleet regulations, keeping secrets from their superiors, disobeyed Starfleet orders, and are now putting Picard’s career at risk by involving him in their dangerous plans. Picard stands by his friends and tells Troy that he trusts them all and that friendship must dare to risk, otherwise, it is not true friendship.
Lesson:
Capt. Picard’s attitude towards friendship reflects a relationship between people who are not tied by blood, or by marriage, and yet are as close, and at times perhaps even closer, than that of brotherhood or sisterhood.
We build our friendships over time and the bond grows stronger with each moment enjoyed together and each problem shared in times of need. We are reminded by this scene that true friendship requires an almost unwavering trust between friends, which allows us to overcome any doubts, risks or even fears that we might have in blindly moving forward to help a friend.
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Lesson No. 112: The primitive society (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Humans from the 20th century are found in cryogenic stasis in a derelict ship by the crew of the Enterprise. When they are revived, the 20th century humans feel quite out of place and out of time. As they look ahead to their new lives in the 24th Century, one of them, a successful 20th century businessman, complains that he no longer has any money, no office of work, no means of support, and wonders how he will live or what he will do. When Capt. Picard explains that in the 24th Century such material needs no longer exist, the 20th century businessman asks, “Then what’s the challenge?” Picard says the challenge is to improve and to enrich oneself.
Lesson:
Our human quests today, here at the beginning of the 21st century, still remain so petty and trivial. Most of us just continue to go about our daily lives, buried neck deep, in the sole pursuit of wealth. Our selfish goals of amassing wealth and satisfying our material needs, overwhelms us.
We do this today, of course, just to get some kind of control over our lives and our destinies.
As a species we are still very primitive and dwell more on protecting our possessions, than on sharing. With very few exceptions, most of the human race still remains quite self centered, content with our own comfortable lives and always looking the other way when faced by the needs of others. Regardless of what political “-ism’s” or religions we follow, we will not be able to change our ways as long as we perpetuate human poverty, bigotry and greed, clearly the true Triad of Evil.
Come the day when everyone has a “piece of the pie” and no one needs to worry about food, shelter and proper care, the basic necessities of human life, only then we can appreciate Picard’s way of life in the 24th century. Ironically enough though, we already know today, the one clear path to reach that glorious goal, and that is to learn to replace our indifference and dispassionateness with the one true “-ism”…altruism!
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Lesson No. 113: Selflessness vs. selfishness (Guinan, Wesley)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Wesley Crusher has to leave the Enterprise to join Starfleet Academy. He doesn’t want to leave the Enterprise, but he does it because it is what he is expected to do. When discussing his decision with Guinan, the ship’s wise alien bartender, Wesley says he believes that sometimes you have to do what others want you to do and not be selfish. Guinan replies that it is at times more difficult to decide when it is better to be selfish and think about your self instead of thinking of others.
Lesson:
For those who believe it is better to always receive than to give, the idea of being selfish in making decisions is not a difficult concept to grasp. However, for those with a conscience about their fellow man, whether they are a stranger or familiar to them, there is always a driving impulse to do things that will benefit others more than themselves. For these kind and very empathic people, there is the risk of not knowing when to draw the line between benevolence and victimization.
It is an unfortunate reality of our times, and perhaps of our species in general, that there are always unscrupulous people looking to exploit the good and the kind amongst us. Pouring out words and expressions that support the goals and beliefs of the audience present, these villains seek to manipulate the emotions of others to benefit their own selfish purposes. After all, is this not the modus operandi of almost every politician?
In the case of the young malleable mind of Wesley Crusher however, the pressure he feels to enter the academy, from his mother, the Captain and other crew members of the Enterprise, has no underlying tones of meanness or harm intended towards Wesley. When it comes to career choices, the final decision must satisfy a self-need more than the needs of others.
Selflessness is a wonderful human trait, but it must always be on guard to not fall prey to the sometimes selfishness of others.
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Lesson No. 115: Understanding death (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
A totally unknown alien life form queries Capt. Picard on the human condition and understanding of what is death. Picard replies that some humans see it as the changing of themselves into an indestructible form which lasts forever, while others see it as just simply blinking themselves into nothingness, finding out that all of their hopes and dreams were nothing but illusions. Picard postulates that given the clockwork perfection of the universe, the truth about death must be more than either of these philosophies and that death is un-measureable, un-definable and not understandable by our current standards of thought.
Lesson:
Defining and understanding what is death has been one of the most sought after quests of mankind for all ages. Yet, to this day, with all of our super high technology, mathematically configured universe, and philosophical considerations of past sages, we are still no closer to comprehending death than the first cave man that saw his fellow cave man fall down to never rise again.
Outside of religion, which can claim to explain death sans evidence or logic, based solely on belief, we have predicted, perhaps rightly so, that even in the 24th century with interstellar faster than light speed technology, we will still be no closer to quantifying and qualifying death any better.
Arguments disfavoring this conclusion might point to humans building machines to “see” beyond our experiential senses of the visible spectrum and discovering Infra-red, Ultra violet, Gamma rays and X-rays. These bands of radiation have always existed alongside us, just not discernable to us without technology. This example cites therefore, that the post-death state is in existence with us, just not registering in our ordinary senses or technology.
Another simple observation in this life tells us that we know nothing of whence we came and nothing of the post-death henceforth to where we shall go. If we came from nothingness and end up in nothingness, does that mean we return to the same condition after death as we were in before life? Does that make birth and death nothing more than just two points on a step function, or even more elementary, the two sides of the same coin? In this line of conjecture, death becomes nothing more than a point of exchange, from life to post-life. Unfortunately, this point of exchange is still a one way door, not letting us communicate in either direction.
Bottom line - whatever idea, understanding or belief we may personally have of death today - we are each just as right and just as wrong as everyone else.
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Lesson No. 116: Simpler times of yesteryear (Data, LaForge)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Chief Engineer Jeordi LaForge builds a model replica of an old sea-faring sailing ship by hand as a gift for a former Captain with whom he had served on another ship prior to coming on board the Enterprise. When he shows the ship to Lt. Cmdr. Data, remarking that the model represents the proper way to move a ship, by wind and sail, Data sees a contradiction in Jeordi’s comments. Recognizing that Jeordi is well known for his talents and skills in Anti-Matter and Dilithium crystal based propulsion, Data queries Jeordi on his fascination for the archaic wind and sail method of motion. Jeordi answers that it is human nature to yearn for simpler days.
Lesson:
In our hi-tech world today of instant information and instant gratification, many look back on the simpler times of yesterday when people actually read books and newspapers, and talked with their neighbors, and knew that working a career would lead to a comfortable retirement.
Gone are those days of naïveté, replaced today by hand held technology bringing the world to our fingertips instantaneously, and avoiding eye to eye contact with others lest they engage us in conversation, and careers making money from money without ever producing anything.
In spite of all of this negativity about the present making one yearn for the simpler days of the past, let’s not forget that as the forward flow of time takes us into tomorrow, we will look back upon today as those wonderful simpler days of yesteryear.
So, why not just enjoy today, for we will surely miss it tomorrow.
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Lesson No. 117: Learning from failure and defeat (Data, LaForge, Pulaski)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Cmdr. Data, an android, programs the Holodeck to experience a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Having downloaded all of the Sherlock Holmes novels into his memory, Data always solves the mysteries without any effort at all. Dr. Pulaski points out that Data, as a computer, is unable to experience the true mystery of the unknown and therefore, cannot experience the human condition of the thrill of victory because there is no risk of failure in his approach. She also points out to Data that we humans actually learn much more from losing than from winning, and more from a fatal mistake than from a success.
Lesson:
Learning from our losses and mistakes is a concept lost on many humans. If losses and mistakes are seen as only failures and something to be admonished and reprimanded, then we miss a golden opportunity to learn and improve ourselves.
Victories, while elating us in success, really do nothing more than to confirm either that our approach in the competition was basically correct or perhaps better than that of our losing opponents. Whereas, a single or a first victory may teach us that we have chosen the correct path, repeated victories may indicate a lack of true competition and leads us into complacency.
From the late 1960’s to the early 1970’s, George Foreman became the most fearsome boxer in the world. After winning the Gold Medal in boxing at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Foreman turned professional. By winning all of his fights, mostly by knockouts, Foreman had become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The knockout thunder of his punches always defeated his opponents quickly within the first few rounds of each of his 37 out of 40 different successful fights.
Then came the “Rumble in the Jungle”, Foreman’s fight with the legendary icon of boxing, Muhammad Ali, in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974 for the heavyweight championship of the world.
For the first time in his entire career, Foreman had to fight well into the eighth round. After throwing his powerhouse bone crushing punches at Ali, who basically moved a little, but mostly stayed glued to the ropes, absorbing everything Foreman had to throw, the invincible Foreman showed severe signs of fatigue. The juggernaut punches of Foreman had by now turned into well-telegraphed, slow motioned swats incapable of any real damage. With Foreman gasping for a breath and his arms now cuffed by the anvils of eight grueling rounds, Ali stepped in. A quick left followed by a devastating right and the master had given the student the final lesson. Forman lost by a knockout.
More was learned in that fight by Foreman and by everyone watching, than in the 40 fights which preceded Foreman’s career. This loss by Foreman, lead to the introduction of new tactics in boxing and to better appreciation of intelligence over brute strength in a competition. Foreman had also discovered his Achilles’ heel - stamina.
The thrill of victory, especially repeated victories, can never teach us as much as the agony of one defeat.
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Lesson No. 118: Uniquely human trait (Data, Guinan)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Cmdr. Data, an android, in his quest to be more human tries to learn the concept of humor from a Holodeck simulation of a stand-up comedian. Failing to be funny as a stand up comedian, Data seeks out advice from the ever-wise alien Guinan. Seeing his dilemma, she tells Data that being able to make people laugh and being able to laugh is not the end all and be all of being human. Data replies that while that statement may be true, there is absolutely nothing more uniquely human.
Lesson:
Humor has probably been around since the first caveman tripped over a rock accidently and fell down in front of his peers. Physical, slap-stick style, humor still remains as the purest form of humor, as evidenced by the laughter of children, the most innocent of audiences. The antics of characters from the Tom & Jerry cartoons to the Three Stooges incite the same laughter from all, bridging languages and cultures.
More sophisticated humor premised on language is generally localized as it is referential in material. While this type of humor may at first be difficult to convey across different languages and cultures, the more familiar we become with our global neighbors, the easier it becomes for us to laugh in unison.
Humor still remains the easiest way to put others at ease, especially in a first contact situation. Humor provides a release mechanism for us in our times of difficulty and great emotional stress. Humor helps us to bond and bind with others as friends. Humor is the easiest way to bring a smile, laughter and joy to others.
As humor is the cause of smiles and laughter, and smiles and laughter are evidence of joy and happiness in humans, anyone able to convey humor accurately deserves to be, therefore, considered a master in the art of communications of bringing happiness to others.
Laughter, being a uniquely human reaction (not including the simian emulation of laughter), can be used as a mutually identifiable force to bring us all closer together. Through humor inspired mutual laughter, we can feel more comfortable with each other. When we laugh together, we find it less important to concentrate on hating and killing each other.
Even Data realizes the closeness of the words humor and human are more than just the letters that make up the two words.
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Lesson No. 119: True test in the face of defeat (Picard, Data, Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Cmdr. Data, a most sophisticated android, loses in a computer strategy game to an alien master strategist. The loss leads Data to suspect that he may not be functioning correctly and he removes himself from duty. Counselor Deanna Tory, realizing Data’s dilemma, tells Data that one can handle defeat in 2 ways - either lose confidence in oneself or grow by learning from mistakes. As Data is quickly all consumed by his self-imposed study of his supposed malfunction, Capt. Picard finally orders Data back to duty and advises him that it is quite possible to commit absolutely no mistakes and still lose - and that is not a weakness, that is life.
Lesson:
Losing is always a very hard pill to swallow. Accepting defeat after trying one’s absolute best is quite often a disheartening task. However, the true test of one’s mettle is always in the face of defeat, not victory.
In nearly every competitive encounter, the rules are usually organized such that the outcome of all events will result in one and only one winner. By default, this mandates that all of the other competitors must lose. If one has done everything humanly possible, and even beyond at times, to prepare for the competition and still does not win, then there is absolutely no reason for reproach or self-recrimination.
Although the victors may receive the public accolades, the true winners of competitions are all those who tried their absolute best to win, regardless of the results. These true winners have accomplished something greater than the fleeting fame of victory - they have enhanced the quality of their lives permanently by improving themselves physically and/or intellectually.
Learning from one’s losses and mistakes can bring about victory, even for legendary Kings.
As the old tale is told, Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, retreated to a cave after losing a battle for Scotland’s freedom from the English. Whilst in the cave, despondent and resigned to failure, he observed a spider trying to build a web. After falling down over and over again, failing in his attempts, the spider kept endeavoring, finally completing his web. Invigorated by the spider’s triumph, the King went forth and rallied his men against the English to the famous cry - “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.”
Looking into the face of defeat, one can see the true image of one’s own character.
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Lesson No.120: The partiality of recorded history (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
On a distant planet where warring cultures had managed to totally destroy themselves, to extinction, Capt. Picard discovers technology still active that is able to shed new light on the history of the warring species. Picard conjectures from the evidence found that perhaps the so-called hostile warriors on the planet may actually not have been hostile at all, but made to appear hostile by the surviving descendents of the planet. Picard states that victors write their history invariably to their own advantage, in favor of themselves, usually as heroes or even victims, but never villains and aggressors.
Lesson:
Not only do the spoils belong to the victor, but in cases of war, also the rights to author their version of the truth for history to remember.
If a man were to incite the masses to overthrow the government, is he a rebel or a revolutionary freedom fighter? Depending on the name of the antagonist, it is usually our own personal prejudice and not the truth of history that will answer this question. Lest that statement sounds too harsh, ask yourself how you would label these leaders of men who overthrew established governments - William Wallace, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, and George Washington.
If the Cheyenne & Sioux nations ruled the US today, would the battle at Little Big Horn in 1876 still be called a massacre? If Japan had won World War II, would the battle of Bataan in 1942 be viewed as a crowning moment of glory with no mention of the Bataan Death March? If Napoleon’s empire had survived the loss at the battle of Waterloo 1815, would the term ‘Napoleon’s Waterloo’ somehow be used in a positive way today? What if the battle at Yorktown was not the final struggle of the American Revolutionary war, and today, the people of the US all spoke with British accents and still bowed to the Crown of England, would the battle at Yorktown still be called a Siege or the Final Rebellion of the Insurgent Colonists?
In order for the truth to be recorded as history, pure unadulterated objectivity must replace passion and personal opinion. This is almost an impossible task for humans. We are quick to blame others and prone to praise our own. In situations where we have a dog in the race, we always choose the side of the wall that favors our entrant.
This jingoistic view of the world knocks us off the wall of neutrality and leads us to record victories as massacres and massacres as victories, depending on, as Capt. Picard said, who writes the history.
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Lesson No. 121: Limitations in life (LaForge)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
A telepathic deaf alien peace negotiator uses telepaths from his own race to express his thoughts and emotions. He compares his telepathic interpreters to Lt. Cmdr. Jeordi LaForge’s visor. Just as the visor helps LaForge overcome his blindness and see, the interpreters translate sound into thoughts for the deaf peace negotiator and help him to understand others. When the alien asks LaForge if he resents the visor or his blindness, LaForge answers that he resents neither, as they are both a part of him and since he likes who he is, there is no reason to resent either. The alien says that it is a blessing to understand that they are both special, each in their own way. LaForge agrees heartily.
Lesson:
All human beings have physical limitations of some form or another. The quick reflexes, strength and stamina of professional athletes elude the majority of us. Yet we accept our not having their abilities as part of what is considered normal in most societies. We neither condemn the athletes for having superior abilities to us, nor do we sink into self-deprecating thoughts and behavior for not being able to do what they can do. We accept our limited ways in life.
When the challenges of physical limitations are magnified by quantum levels through the loss of senses, limbs, immunity, or other medical conditions, then the struggle to live what we call a normal life becomes a daily battle. If there is no cure for the ailment and the battles appear futile and without any final resolution, then the strategy of the war must change for there to be a victory. While the ailment may reduce human physical activity, it must never be allowed to contain the human mind.
As in any good ghost story, the unknown and unseen entity always manages to inspire fear in us. However, once we see the ghost or the monster, we are less afraid. To see the enemy’s face and understand its ways, we no longer fear it, but learn to confront it and even to subdue it.
By facing the ailment and understanding its causes and effects, we can learn to accept its challenges. We construct our environment and activities to diminish its control over us. We curtail its hold over us by never letting it discourage or depress us. We may not be able to defeat it, but neither do we have to let it defeat us.
As we each learn to live with our own individual set of limitations, we grow more accepting of our lot in life. This allows us to cherish the gifts of life and to share it with others.
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Lesson No. 124: Reaping success from disadvantage (Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation
Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
When a deaf alien negotiator loses his telepathic interpreters, he finds that he is unable to continue with the peace negotiations he is conducting. When Counselor Deanna Troy offers to step into the negotiations in his place, the alien negotiator offers her advice by stating that the main tool of negotiations is to always try to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Troy, frustrated by the alien’s discouraged loss of confidence in himself, challenges him by asking why he cannot turn his new disadvantage of the loss of his interpreters into an advantage and make that his starting point for negotiations. This gives the alien negotiator an epiphany and leads him to return to the negotiations, solo, without any interpreters.
Lesson:
Turning disadvantages into advantages is an extremely difficult task, mostly because we find it easier to resign ourselves to failure rather than to continually battle to overcome that which appears to be insurmountable. Just as every coin always has two sides, if we try to find the good in the bad, the positive in the negative, we can actually manage to accomplish the alchemy in the situation.
While the loss of a steady job is seen as a negative, one could use it as an opportunity to explore new areas of growth which may lead to better jobs. Sometimes, the lack of jobs in the market has led to successful entrepreneurial ventures by many who may never have tried to go solo if they had landed another job.
The terrible event of the loss of human lives has at times been the impetus for new laws being established or the creation of new charitable foundations.
Then there is the one remarkable true story, iconic of this topic.
Once there was a child born into a wealthy family. His father was a doctor. It was naturally assumed that the child too would follow in a similar professional path. As the child grew up, even though he loved to play soccer, he studied law at the university and wanted to become a successful lawyer.
At the age of 19 he was in a car accident that left him paralyzed. For 3 years, he underwent convalescence treatment, resigning himself to the fact that his days of soccer playing were over and his studies in law would be severely hampered by being wheel chair bound.
While under medical care, a nurse gave him a guitar. Soon he learned to play the guitar, write songs and began to receive praise for his singing. Much to the chagrin of his parents, he decided to try a music career.
His name - Julio Iglesias.
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