Paul Vargis
TyFor those unfamiliar with the term, you are either not a Trekkie (which can I show you some stuff?) or you are not a fan of the fifth movie adventure of the original series crew, The Final Frontier. It is essentially the journey for the Source, God if you will. Some balk because of the idea, humanity advanced beyond the concepts of religion (or is simply we had advanced beyond the bigotry and divisions that religion used as an opiate for the masses, as a mean of power and control?). For those who do not think spirituality (those intrinsic pieces of us that get renewed through certain practices that speaks to the beginning of the answer to the why question of life), look no further, than the show enjoying a renaissance thank to streaming, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, which interweaves rebirth, renewal, de-colonization, reconciliation, science and religion together. Illustrating the types of questions each is designed for.
Why does this matter? What percolated these thoughts once more, about how stories, like Star Trek, and science, and faith can co-exist together? It began two-fold, one part with the side quest to Vul-Con, but more importantly with my family connecting with Marda Loop Church here in the city as the restrictions of covid lifted. Many churches threw masks away right away, but MLC kept the safety valve as they followed the science. As a family with medical complexities, it mattered for safety. Then the mission resonated, the reading of the two scriptures- the written and creation, the various ways to experience God.
Re-connects with how I have entered my own eclectic faith journey of life, but as I journey through dark nights of the soul, that has been shared in collects and poetry recently, it has renewed this liturgical entering story once more.
So, what is the journey to Shaka Re?
To the center of the galaxy, think of that imagery, a labyrinth like journey where the path is known, but it gives you space not to worry about the steps, but what is happening along the way.
Before the use of the Enterprise, and the next step, in between the question of pain? What role does pain play in our lives? Our formation? What does heal or avoidance look like? What does reconciliation to self?
Within the story of McCoy and his medical assistance in dying with his Dad, what role does self-forgiveness play in our own healing? Are we able to give that forgiveness or will it always be something that evades so the pain remains consistent? As McCoy speaks to how soon a cure was found, yet why do we withhold our own forgiveness? Why do we continue to berate or punish ourselves for decisions made in the past based on information we have today?
We made the best decision possible in the moment, given the events of life and what was known. Do not forget that.
Towards the galactic barrier, can it be breached? A leap of faith to even attempt? What leap of faith has your journey taken you into, what was the outcome? What was discovered on the other side?
On the other side, was it God? Or was it a shadow reflection of ego? The voice that challenges, that shifts, do we want to demonize? More importantly though, showing what happens when the journey accepts the ends justifying the means. What was held beyond the barrier was not the loving Creator, but what the creation created, a godling driven by power, anger and vengeance that would not broker any dissent. As was seen by the reaction to Kirk, then Spock’s question of “What does God need with a starship?
This was shaped around the backdrop bigger questions of connection and belonging. What is family? Who are actual members of the family? As the camping trip that the trio (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) were on at the beginning, and at the end, the statement was made, that people like them did not have families. Yet the journey answered, it may not be what was defined as “family” yet, there is family through love, connection and belonging.
Who is your family?
The other question touched upon mortality; how do we know when our time has come?
And I am not forgetting Sybok, for Sybok was complicated, looking to alleviate pain, to avoid, but also seeking the Source, the meaning of life. How would you explain God? And the confrontation of the darkness, and in the moment, what light do you shine into the darkness?
These are questions along the journey, take the 1 hour and forty minutes to watch the film, explore the questions, what other things do you notice? What other stories resonate with you from the settlers of Nimbus III (the Planet of Galactic Peace)? The journey to the Source?
Has there been a moment in your life, when you are consumed with the outcome of the journey that you miss the journey itself? When you saw into the darkness and thought it was the light? Did you have a Sybok moment of transfiguration?
Take time with the stories you engage with, to notice, what other things come through, for the artists, the dreamers, the musicians, the writers, craft into the book of creation the same as creation and science, each exploring a piece of the meaning of life, and understanding. Each a piece of figuring out the who, what, where, when why and how questions on this pilgrimage into, within and alongside the Holy Mystery.
A Monk's Musings 