On Losing Joy

In the 1998 film "Star Trek: Insurrection", Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise find themselves leading a rebellion against their superiors in order to protect a world and its population.  The planet Ba'ku seems to hold the key to longevity and perfect health.  The population has lived for hundreds of years in a utopian type of community.  Ba'ku seems to be the 24th century equivalent of the fountain of youth.

Another group of people has discovered the miracle that Ba'ku holds and has decided to harvest its powers for themselves.  They are not willing to relocate and are not willing to give up their technology and other lifestyle choices in order to reap the benefits of Ba'ku's resources.  Instead they want to harvest the planet and gain the benefits NOW, which will destroy the planet and make it uninhabitable for the people already living there.

Enter Picard and the Enterprise crew.  At first they are unaware of the powers Ba'ku possesses as well as the plot to harvest and dislocate the native population.  But as the crew spends time on the planet they begin to experience the miracles themselves.  Captain Picard grows close to one of the community's leaders, Anij, who teaches him about their culture.  The people of Ba'ku live a peaceful, slow, technology-free life; Anij begins to teach the captain about "living in the moment", focusing on the present moment, not rushing to and fro.  It seems as Picard learns to live out this lifestyle he discovers that time itself really does seem to slow down.

Of course battle soon ensues as the bad guys demand the right to harvest Ba'ku for its miraculous resources, displacing the peaceful residents of the utopian world. These guys want the miracles of Ba'ku immediately, without changing their lifestyles; they want the best of both worlds and they don't care who or what they have to hurt to get it. Their hurried, possessive, consumer and self-driven culture prevented them from finding peace, joy, contentment in anything. They were always wanting more, better, now. Unlike the people of Ba'ku they are unable to slow down and live in the moment and so they are incapable of being satisfied or finding joy in their circumstances or their lives. Fortunately, of course, the Enterprise crew saved the day and learned a few of these lessons for themselves in the process.

A bit over ten years ago I totaled my little red Mitsubishi Mirage car, with students riding with me, as we traveled to meet a part of our group for a fundraiser.  We were running from one site to another and meeting everyone else for lunch.  I was in a slightly unfamiliar area and trying to make it on time so I was focused an entire block ahead because I was not sure which street I needed to turn onto.  Instead of focusing on the moment I was looking ahead, and as a result I cut a red light too close and was hit by a truck coming thru the intersection.  Everyone was OK, no injuries except my little car and probably the other dude's pickup.  I really wasn't speeding but my mind was looking ahead and so my car was, basically, out of control.

When Luke Skywalker was training on the planet Dagobah with Grand Master Yoda to become a Jedi Knight, he entered his training with all sorts of expectations.  He had grown up hearing about the legendary Jedi Order and had a picture in his head of what the great Master Yoda would look like, how he would lead, what a great warrior he must be, how he would train and teach.  Luke was so set on his image of how his training would be and who Yoda would be that he was filled with disappointment at the reality which he was presented with.  His disappointment from his unmet expectations created in him a critical spirit and caused him to get off to a rocky start on his training, to actually lose some of the precious one-on-one time and attention that he had the opportunity to glean from the greatest Jedi Master ever.

Each of these stories carry the weight of dissatisfaction, of disappointment, of jealousy of what someone else has, a critical spirit, the refusal to hand over power or control, of being caught up with our own expectations that we cannot see beyond that which consumes us in the here and now.  All of these things keep us from living in joy like the people of Ba'ku, able to slow down and enjoy the moment, to truly live life for the present that it is.

Oh, how much we lose when we allow our unrealistic, unfair expectations and comparisons to trick us into giving up the best for the "better".