Everybody In The World Needs To See

Captain’s Log, Stardate 10132021:

“To see the blue color whip by, and now you’re staring into blackness. That’s the thing. This covering of blue is this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us. We think ‘oh, that’s blue sky,’ and suddenly you shoot through it, like you whip a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness—into black ugliness. And you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there, and there is Mother Earth and comfort, and—is there death? Is that the way death is? It was so moving to me. This experience, it was something unbelievable. It’s one thing to say ‘oh the sky, and it’s fragile’—but it’s all true. This pillow, this soft blue. Look at the beauty of that color. And it’s so thin, and you’re through it in an instant. Suddenly you’re through the blue and you’re into black, what you see is black, and what you see down there is light, and that’s the difference. And not to have this? What you’ve given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. I am so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it. I can’t even begin to express. . . what I would love to do is to communicate, as much as possible, the jeopardy. The moment you see the vulnerability of everything. It’s so small. This air, which is keeping us alive, is thinner than your skin. It’s a sliver; it’s immeasurably small when you think in terms of the universe. It’s negligible, this air. It’s so thin. Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to See.”

—William Shatner

[video:https://youtu.be/eHBFR1biJX8]

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for that rocket ride, for the last seat, and Captain Kirk was right behind me, I would have stepped aside, and let him fly, one more time.

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20 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

hecate's picture

@on the cusp
maybe it's corny, but Captain Kirk, I think, he deserved, to go to space.

And it's not like it was a wasted trip. Up there, as evidenced above, he Saw. And now, wants to tell about it.

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20 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

I think he deserved to go too. The way he expressed what he saw was well spine tingling. I wonder if he thought of James Montgomery Doohan, aka Montgomery Scott, aka Scotty?

42C934BC-45BF-42E3-A04A-35E11A2183E7.jpeg

The ashes of Scotty from Star Trek are aboard the International Space Station

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17 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Azazello's picture

There was no Captain Kirk.
There was no Mr. Spock.
There was no Enterprise.
None of it ever took place.
It was TeeVee.

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7 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

hecate's picture

@Azazello
[video:https://youtu.be/zUlaSQbpczk]

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7 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@hecate @hecate
To me, this whole story represents some kind of Peak Boomer. I'm just so sick of Boomer/TeeVee culture being perpetuated in the media. This story was all over my TeeVee news yesterday. It was on NPR this morning and the front page of my morning paper.
A correct headline might have been something like: Mediocre Television Actor Gets Ride on Billionaire Prick's Giant Prick. I did not see any like that.
Yes, I understand, Star Trek was important to me too ... when I was in Jr. Frickin' High.
Why was this stupidity all over the news ?
Do you like Samba ?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFELZ-QZXTE&list=PLuP87yMb17kECq7cg0WnSu... width:400 height:240]

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4 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

hecate's picture

@Azazello
I grow impatient with people deluded that “generations” are anything other than a marketing ploy. But if your rocks get rolling raging at “boomers,” have at it. : )

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6 users have voted.

I'm glad Shatner had this experience, but I couldn't figure out why he would call the deep blackness of space "ugly".

I was afforded the opportunity with a group of fellow docents from Fermilab to look through the large telescope at Yerkes Observatory in WI. The telescope was focused on the Trapezium in Orion's belt. To me it looked like four diamonds nestled in black velvet. In fact the blackness of space had a richness to it that was deeply comforting and amazingly beautiful.

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11 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

snoopydawg's picture

@Fishtroller 02

as opposed to the fragile life that he saw in the blue sky.

This covering of blue is this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us. We think ‘oh, that’s blue sky,’ and suddenly you shoot through it, like you whip a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness—into black ugliness. And you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there, and there is Mother Earth and comfort, and—is there death? Is that the way death is?

Maybe we should send every oil and fracking CEOs to space and see if they can see what they are destroying. If they can’t then maybe we can park them in the space station away from the others there until they change their minds…

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7 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

usefewersyllables's picture

Good on ya, Cap'n. Made me smile, on a distinctly non-smiling day.

"Eed pebnista, nordor formor fectunum..."

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9 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Bisbonian's picture

and into the Black.
They give you this,
but you pay for that
And once you're gone,
you can never come back
When you're out of the blue
and into the black.
--Neil Young

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11 users have voted.

"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Dawn's Meta's picture

often had an ethical or philosophical meaning.

This is the kind of almost child-like reaction to something extraordinary. An uncynical response from 90 (really that old?) y/o Bill Shatner.

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4 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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