I happen to be a Star Trek fan. That's right. Confessions of a Trekkie, or Trekker, as some like to be called. I like the original Star Trek, TNG (The Next Generation), and Voyager.
I found out from Melanie that I can pretty much watch Star Trek all afternoon on various channels. (We had a sick day together. Really, Larry we WERE sick!!)
I think Star Trek does a good job of portraying leadership and followership on the show.
The other day, Captain Janeway faced an interesting challenge. She had 2 of her crew in trouble, and wanting to leave the ship.
First, there was Seven of Nine, or Seven, for short. Seven broke away from the Borg Collective, but was having trouble learning to be independant as a human being again. She was angry and wanted to quit. But Janeway couldn't let her go without allowing great peril to the entire ship. Not only that, she knew that if Seven could get through her initial fear and transitional discouragement, she would choose humanity over the Borg for herself. So, Seven was locked up in the Brig to prevent escape.
Then there's Kes. Kes was turning into a different life form, and her energy matter was harming the ship. However, Janeway was reluctant to let her go. She told Kes, "What if you are basing this decision on your feelings, getting caught up in what is happening to you? What if an alien is doing this to you."
"Captain, you can't make me stay," Kes replied.
"No, but I can beg, plead, and cajole you to reconsider. I don't want you to act out of emotion or persuasion from an alien force. I want to protect you."
In the end, she had to say good-bye to Kes. In fact, she was wrong about Kes, and Kes was meant to leave. And Seven of Nine got out of the Brig and began to deal with her humanness.
As leaders, we face some pretty tough decisions. Sometimes we get it wrong. But always we get it right if we are fighting for truth and justice, and if we are considering our shipmates more than ourselves.
"in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Philippians 2:3b
2 comments:
Really, the producers werent able to negotiate a suitable contract with Kes and thus they created a show in order to get rid of her (in a nice way)...
But the leadership principles do remain true. We are not perfect, no one is. Putting others first is a great step forward. In the words of John "He must increase, but I must decrease." ALthough he was speaking specifically of Jesus, we must learn to apply that to those around us.
I read all your blogerithms today. Some of them are fun, some inspirational, and some need to be deleted from the interweb aka startrekking newage craperamma stuff. :)
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