With fear spreading fast, it’s wise to remember James T. Kirk’s words

The writing of Star Trek: The Original Series is still profound all these years later, and none more so this week than from the lips of James T. Kirk.

We live in a scary time. Right now a pandemic has cut us off from foreign allies, the outside world, our neighbors and even at times our humanity and civility. Not everyone has regressed to self-serving hoarders, seeking to make a profit like a Ferengi. Not everyone still has fallen into the panic of these next few weeks. Yet there are enough people out there who could use a refresher course on the tenants of fear as told by James T. Kirk in Star Trek: the Orginal Series second-ever episode, The Corbomite Maneuver.

The episode sees the crew of the original U.S.S. Enterprise have to deal with the fallout of a destroyed marker in space. It’s also the episode that had the double-dose of creepy in Balok. What a….what a weird idea.

Yet, Balok’s not the point of today’s posting. It’s the lines that Kirk used to explain the idea of fear and the unknown to his crew.

"You know the greatest danger facing us is ourselves, an irrational fear of the unknown. But there’s no such thing as the unknown– only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood.— Captain Kirk"

With everything so upside down and funky right now, it’s good to remember these words. As sporting events and productions on television shows go into hiatus for the moment, there’s a lot of fear.  A lot of unprecedented firsts or things we haven’t seen happen in decades are being done to ensure our health and well being. Being afraid is natural but it’s unproductive. Be alert, be prepared and be mindful, but mostly and importantly, be kind. You have no idea who’s going to need it.