When Scotty Makes You Think About Midlife

"He would rather have flown when he was alive, of course," said Wende Doohan, widow of James Doohan, who played the part of Scotty on the original Star Trek.

This is a quote that I found wildly funny yesterday. You see, Scotty has passed away and his widow was commenting about his ashes being sent into space on Space-X's rocket a few days ago. So, the addition of "of course" to the statement that Scotty would rather have been alive for the voyage into space really tickled my funny bone. But, after a night's sleep thinking about this, I realized that, for me, this quote is kind of profound.

This is a guy who was all about space exploration and was teleporting tribbles through space before my family had a color television. Though he may have acted in other shows, we really only knew him as Scotty, who kept telling Kirk that "she's giving it all she's got" when he'd phone down to the engine room and tell Scotty that if the Enterprise didn't go a little bit faster they'd end up being lunch to some very aggravated aliens. What a shame that his first actual trip into space was after he was dead.

So, in my midlife crisisness state of mind, I've started thinking that I don't want to end up like Scotty with my wife saying, "He would have really enjoyed doing that when he was still alive." Who would have thought Scotty would reach out from the grave to teach me a lesson about life? Not me. I'm actually more of a Next Generation kind of a Trekkie.

Now, I'm not talking about a bucket list. That's a few decades off for me. Still, it's time to think about things I'd like to do before my wife sends my ashes into space. Do I want to go into space? Not really. Pretty much the best ride into space is going to be with Sir Richard Branson and, while I think it would be fun to have champagne with him during the flight, let's face it that this guy doesn't have a great track record of landing balloons on Earth let alone returning to Earth from space. I think I'll give Virgin Galactic a few years to work out the kinks.

I really don't have anything so dramatic in mind. I think it would be fun to bike up the California coast, or at least part of it, someday. I could see myself picking up the saxophone again and playing the occassional gig someday. I'd like to eat pho in Vietnam instead of the San Francisco Financial District someday. Other than that, I think my voyage to space is more about just trying to enjoy where I'm at and who I'm with. Thankfully, I'm surrounded by awesome and supportive family and friends on a daily basis, so this isn't a hard thing to do.

I guess Scotty's advice to us, other than "Don't get typecast as a Scottish guy who runs the engine room on spaceships" (Not a lot of parts available other than Scotty. I'm just sayin'.), is to do what you want to in life...now. It doesn't have to be big. You don't have to jump out of a plane, unless that's your thing. But, make sure you do that thing that you've always wanted to try before your wife is telling CNN, "He would have rather flown when he was alive, of course."

Of course.