What does it take to lighten your heart?

This world is FULL of Bad Fruit. Quit honestly, if we focus too much on the negative, it can consume us. So, we need to find spaces that bring us peace.

This week, my youngest son and I got to see William Shatner. Shatner is of course mostly recognized as the Star of Star Trek, aka Captain Kirk. Shatner, has a long extended acting career where he started out in his home country of Canada. His career spans 7 decades. In addition to Star Trek, his career includes countless appearances in shows like The Twilight Zone, Columbo, and Big Bang Theory to name a few. He also stared in TJ Hooker, The Practice and Boston Legal. He has been Producer and Director. He was the long time spokesperson for Priceline.com. He has written over 30 books and has also written and produced music. Just 5 years ago, Shatner was the oldest man to ever travel into space! When I saw he was coming to our area, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see him. He is FREAKIN 95 years old and in good health!

As a kid, my brother and his friends were Star Trek fans. They even had a Star Trek Club. I was too young for awareness or to understand why you needed to choose which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek? My brother and his friends where Trekkies and I wanted to be like my brother. For the record, since they did the 2 other trilogies of Star Wars movies, I now describe myself as a Star Wars fan with roots as a Trekkie. The original Star Wars trilogy just doesn’t stand up to Star Trek I-V. – at least in my opinion. Childhood memories and what I grew up with, could very well be my source of influence.

Before we got to see Bill, first we watched Star Trek II The Wrath of Kahn. Then Bill came out for questions and presentation. I say this with this language because, there was an agenda. This was NOT his first rodeo on stage live. (He is a horse lover by the way.) He has toured in various capacities like this over the course of his career. It has however, been a long time since he did this bit! My city was his starting point for the 2026 tour. My best guess is he did not have to practice much since he has done this before. There were stories that he told from the set of Star Trek. There was of course additional material, such as his journey to space.

His agenda was about telling a personal story. He weaved his agenda into the audience questions.

Stories depicting vigor.
Stories depicting observations.
Observations of subjective perception.
Observations of human principles.
Principles like mentality.
Principles like personal insights.
Insights channeling introspection.
Insights channeling solidarity.
Insight channeling altruism
Insights channeling humanitarianism.

Our question was never directly asked from the cue cards, but it was answered. Question to Bill:

“You have had lifetime of experiences that many of us will never encounter. What was your most impactful experience and why?”

I really thought his journey to space would have been included in his answer. Instead?

Bill talked about his relationship with his daughters. He spoke of their closeness. He noted the closeness of one of his daughters that he did not have with the others. In 2022, both he and his daughter were diagnosed with different types of Stage 4 cancer at the same time. He described the pain of walking together and supporting each other during their cancer treatments. He described the joy on the other side of the journey of having conquered cancer together with his daughter.

William Shatner showed us his heart. His closing question was about his journey to space. Witnessing “death” in the darkness of space. Witnessing “Life” from the darkness of space – our planet earth. His closing message was directed at being humanitarian towards both our fellow humans as well as better stewards of our planet.

Light Hearted FUN FRIDAY! to you and I hope you have a Light Hearted weekend! Enjoy!