Living with Fate: Insights from Star Trek’s Captain Pike

Easy answer.

Captain Christopher Pike, U.S.S. Enterprise.

The character as portrayed in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a good leader. He takes time to get to know his crew and he serves them as much as they serve him. One of the things I like about him is he cooks meals. Then he invites new members of the crew for dinner. When they show up, he gives them small tasks like chopping vegetables or setting the table. This helps build teamwork, makes the crewman feel valued, and binds the crew together.

Pike’s command style is very much mine. He leads not by authority (he has it and everyone knows it). He’s mastered the idea that to be a good leader, one must be a good servant. He leads through the idea of respect and the building of a family.

Capt. Pike is also facing a huge challenge. And this where I’m focusing.

We already know from Star Trek Canon that Capt Pike is horribly injured. He’ll be trapped in a life support unit. His brain works. He’s still Christopher Pike, but he’s very much a prisoner in his own body.

Years ago I read Johnny got his Gun by Dalton Trumbo. The hero in it is living a nightmare. Pike isn’t much better off. It’s a destiny worse than death.

Worse, he knows it’s coming. He even has a rough timeline when it might happen. Initially he was looking for a way to dodge that fate. He then discovers if it doesn’t happen, there will be a war in which billions die.

Now, he’s determined to live in the here and now and do the very best he can. He’s resolved to face this terrible destiny with courage.

What Captain Pike faces is no different from what we all face. All of us are fated to die and its amazing how many people act like it will never happen. If we acknowledged that, how would it change us as people?

Would we fall into a pit of despair or would we try to leave things better than we found them. Capt. Pike is a fictional character. But we often see us reflected in fictional characters and facing the end is something that will happen. We can either dread it or make the best of the time we have left.

The thing I relearn is this. When I wrote this blog, I was staring down the gun at turning 69. Next year, I turn 70. And unless I make it to 140 (very unlikely) there are fewer days ahead than behind. That means one fine day, a man or woman in a white lab coat might say something. Something that will rock the very foundations of my life.

I will face the ultimate enemy.

Then I’ll need to remember, how we face death is as important as we face life.

And I will need to remind myself that Death is a temporary thing. That if I’m not here in the body, then I will be with the Lord. And that he’s already beaten that enemy.

That and I’ve already been dead once.

I found it very liberating. Read about that here.