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That sci-fi technology was a seed-starter in my childhood imagination's soil. Nearly 50 years later, I still yearn for the experience of teleporting from one location to another. Don't we all? It would be so damned convenient and save so much precious time.
But now, at this oldish man life stage, I think about something else: the disassembling and reassembling aspect of the transporter—the weightless notion that in seconds I could become pixels, disappear, and then reappear in a better future without even a nod to that in-between space—a complete escape.
Older now, I know this in-between space all too well, this liminal space, this threshold between past and future—it is not weightless and it won't be ignored. Unlike Star Trek, life affords few effortless escapes. A guy can get stuck in between.
Sure, sometimes we might not even attend to this in-between space, might not even notice it, or conversely, consciously court the in-between to help us live in the present, ignoring past troubles and future worries. But let's be honest: we grown humans struggle to live in the present.
Unlike Star Trek, in between life's point A and point B there is lots of waiting, wishing, and wondering. Transitions can be hell. And what's disassembled at A is never quite reassembled so well by the time we reach B. If you've ever had to put down a pet you know what I mean and there are 100 other just-have-to-get-through-it-experiences.
Although everyday life has little in common with Star Trek's idealistic transporter, dear friends, please hang on: perhaps Point B is out there, somewhere?
6 comments:
Great post! Never thought of transitions that way like going through Star Trek's transporter. Real food for thought!
I think the transporter might be the only thing that would get me travelling these days. The kids are flying to Mexico in a few days time. The airport and flying hassle does not appeal to me.
The song, Mr In Bewteen comes to mind. I thought it was by Perry Como, but apparently, it was Burl Ives. https://youtu.be/HzUbPSUveQQ?si=-GznnojyjH-rtB7j
I always thought a transporter would be helpful, but you're right that the in between time is important.
A thoughtful and philosophical post. Sounds like you may be dealing with something distressingly unresolved. For me, there are few harder places to be. Yet as you say, there’s so much to be lear in that state. I’m not good with that liminal space between points A and B though, when you don’t yet know how things will settle out. But I promise you:. All will be well. Even if it takes longer than you want to get there. Reminds me of that line from the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: “Everything will be alright in the end, and if it is not alright, it is not yet the end.” For some reason I found that comforting.
In the Star Trek series Strange New Worlds there is a young girl essentially disassembled in the nothingness of the transporter space, only materialised once a day or so, for bedtime stories with her dad, the ship doctor. She is suffering from an as yet incurable fatal disease and is waiting out the time when there is a cure. Something like that, it is a while back now that I watched this. That struck me as strange and a bit creepy. Not an easy transition. I am not sure where I am going with this actually... Hope all is well with you, in between A and B.
@Christina INSERT BLOWN MIND EMOJI HERE...I will find this episode if it's the last thing I do, haha.
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