What story changed your life? Maybe that’s too dramatic? Well, what story shaped or moved your opinions one way another?
My parents didn’t tell me often how or what to think. “It’s up to you,” they said. How did my mother vote? I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me. “You have to decide for yourself,” she said.
My dad was Catholic. But he said, “You can’t make someone be what they don’t want to be. Be Catholic. Be Baptist. Be Buddhist. It’s your life. I just want you to be happy.”
In most situations my dad felt if someone wasn’t harming anyone, her or his life was her or his own.
Even though my parents divorced when I was four, one thing we all still loved was Star Trek. I’d watch it from behind the sofa. My dad would ask if he should turn it off. No!
Star Trek meant independence, adventure, thinking for yourself, and accepting differences. Captain Kirk and crew would encounter people or aliens who were oddly happy, blissful, but not thinking. “Think for yourself.” “Decide for yourself.”
I didn’t see flaws in the stories or in the sets. I believed that we would go to space and we would be good.
Some days I’m still like that.
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
Me too.
That must be why I like you.
Love the photo! Love this post! Love your parents for being so open! And of course love Star Trek!
Yeah, I loved the photo too. I want it on my wall.
What a great world it would be if more parents like yours existed. No more children growing up indoctrinated with ideas that only their way is the right way. Children knowing right from wrong and having the ability to think things through before making decisions which only lead to leaps of imagination.We might leap forward to meet those aliens and find we’re not afraid of their differences as we seem to be afraid of the differences between our cultures on Earth, so much so that we go to war with them.
I think your parents gave you a wonderful gift and you’ve obviously learned to use it well.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
What a great world it would be if more parents like yours existed. No more children growing up indoctrinated with ideas that only their way is the right way. Children knowing right from wrong and having the ability to think things through before making decisions which only lead to leaps of imagination.We might leap forward to meet those aliens and find we’re not afraid of their differences as we seem to be afraid of the differences between our cultures on Earth, so much so that we go to war with them.
I think your parents gave you a wonderful gift and you’ve obviously learned to use it well. I’m lucky to have had those kind of choices too.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
When I was a kid, I tape-recorded several episodes of the original series. NOT video-record it. We had an old reel-to-real recorder; the microphone felt like a solid block of metal, maybe 4 inches on a side, with slots cut into one face, and I’d prop that up in front of the TV speaker. I must’ve had some reason for doing this. But it gave me a finely nuanced appreciation for the sounds of the actors’ voices, which I don’t think I’d have carried with me for decades if I’d just relied on watching the show.
I remember very few conversations with my parents about Big Issues. But they must’ve been pretty accepting and open-minded: the four of us “kids” turned out uniformly, unabashedly liberal, with religious affiliations (or lack thereof) across the board and a pretty broad range of cultural (literary, music, movies, etc.) tastes to boot.
Maybe like you — at least, the way you sound — I’m a pretty uncritical fan of particular shows. If I latch onto a show’s premise and/or characters, I pretty much shut down the scowling editor in my brain.
P.S. Peripherally, I thought this was pretty good — on the Spock/Kirk relationship. (From David Gerrold, on FB.)
It is all we can be…who we are..love the post. I have had to fight every inch of the way to be who I am, and now I have learned surrender also.
I’m not a Star Trek but the innocent hope it inspired in you makes my heart smile. It also makes me wonder if I feel that way, innocently hopeful about anything now-a-days. Don’t have the answer yet 🙂 Good stuff!