Humans of Star Trek - Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Star Trek motivation)
Welcome to Humans of Star Trek, a Star Trek inspired motivation series.
These are the voyages of Starfleet personnel who came together to give us a future that humanity craves for and deserves. Together, let's boldly go where no one has gone before.
Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy served as the chief medical officer on the Enterprise under Captain James Kirk. Bones is one of the most iconic characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. Many of his lines are legendary and some are so popular that they transcend cultures and do not even require a Star Trek reference to be understood. For example, Bones informs Kirk that someone is dead by declaring - "He's dead, Jim". The phrase is now used to describe pretty much anything that's dead or not working.
This could mean something is not functional physiologically, mechanically, electrically, physically, or in the temporal sense not related to a biological system. Talk about striking a chord.
The quote I used today is not one of Bones' most famous ones but it is certainly a remarkable statement.
Death is an inevitability. That may not sound like a pleasant thing to hear but if there is one thing none of us can ignore, it is the fact that some day we will all be gone. We will not be here. We will leave those we love behind. It will not be a choice. We'll be dead, Jim.
Some of us sometimes say "we don't fear death". We are all aware that there are people who are so passionate about their cause or their love for what they believe in that they defy conventional wisdom and are more than willing to embrace death. So surely fear of death is not a universally accepted idea? I am not entirely sure I know the answer to that but I do know that as humans we all "fear" and we all "die".
Bones utters this line in response to Spock. When the highly logical Vulcan remarks "Fear of death is illogical", Bones lets him know he doesn't agree. Is fear of death really what keeps us alive? If you believe Bones then yes, it does. If you take Spock's view into consideration then no, it doesn't.
Here's what I think:
I hate to state the obvious but I think "being alive" and "being dead" are choices we cannot make. We live in an extraordinary world. The fact that we were even born is a ridiculously strange coincidence. And irrespective of how safe of a life we live, we cannot prevent or predict death with any accuracy. So why bother trying? Just live.
But what about fear?
Fear is a natural state of being and we all fear something. Fear manifests itself in dramatically different ways for different people. So embracing the knowledge that it is okay to fear, as I stated in one of my previous posts, is far better than actually succumbing to our fears.
Our survival instincts are pretty damn amazing. That's why we are running this planet and not the chimps or the lions or the elephants. We are even planning and plotting our way to other planets. Fear is part of our survival strategy, we just don't realize it often enough. So it turns out Bones is right - fear is what keeps us alive.
If we survive it is because we constantly teach ourselves how to conquer our fears.
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Live long and prosper!
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