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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Prayer and DS9



I'm still watching Deep Space Nine and I've come to an episode I've always remembered since I first saw it years ago - It's Only a Paper Moon. In this episode, Nog, a young Ferengi Star Fleet officer who's just lost hid leg in battle, is so disturbed by his injury that he tales to living in a holosuite program with a 50s Las Vegas casino lunge singer, Vic Fontaine (James Darren). Here we see Nog hanging out with Vic, as he slowly recovers (and Vic sings It's Only a Paper Moon) ...



But eventually Nog is forced to leave the holosuite and he tries to explain to Vic why he doesn't want to ...

* * *

NOG: Don't you get it? I can't go out there.

VIC: Why not?

NOG: I'm scared, okay? I'm scared. When the war began, I wasn't happy or anything, but I was eager. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to prove I had what it took to be a soldier. And I saw a lot of combat. I saw a lot of people get hurt. I saw a lot of people die, but I didn't think anything was going to happen to me. And then suddenly Doctor Bashir is telling me he has to cut my leg off. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. If I can get shot, if I can lose my leg, anything could happen to me, Vic. I could die tomorrow. I don't know if I'm ready to face that. If I stay here, at least I know what the future is going to be like.

VIC: You stay here, you're going to die. Not all at once, but little by little. Eventually you'll become as hollow as I am.

NOG: You don't seem hollow to me.

VIC: Compared to you, I'm hollow as a snare drum. Look, kid, I don't know what's going to happen to you out there. All I can tell you is that you've got to play the cards life deals you. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but at least you're in the game.

* * *

The reason I mentioned prayer in the title is because so often my prayers are a recitation of Nog's concerns ..... "I don't want to do this anymore. Bad stuff keeps happening to everyone, including me, and there's no way to stop it. I'm scared. I just want it to all go away." I'm still waiting to see if God has any advice more helpful than Vic;s to Nog.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Henry said...

Hi Crystal,

Sorry I haven't been writing but I was away but now I am back and reading your posts. I will try to write a few comments later today.

We got quite a bit of snow here and it is really really cold - how is it out there by you?

12:21 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

1:22 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Henry,

Typos ;)

The weather here has been weird. It's still cold at night, in the 30s, but in the daytime it's freakishly warm ... in the mid 70s. Makes me worry about how hot it will be in the summer.

1:23 PM  

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