I fell through a worm hole. Or is it a time warp? I’m not too sure.
I like fantasy and sci-fi shows and movies, and while I can certainly keep up with the storylines, I couldn’t actually explain the science if my life depended on it.
My favorite is Star Trek, mostly because of the nostalgia factor … I’m old and was there in the very beginning … we grew up together!
But I haven’t watched much Star Trek in the past year and a half since my elderly mom came to live with us. Partly because I really don’t watch a huge amount of TV anyway, but mostly because when we do try to watch, Mom’s not big on that genre and she presents us with a running commentary about the weirdos – Klingons and aliens and such – so it’s not fun to watch with her.
She’s like that with a lot of other movies, too. She’s totally deaf, and unless she’s really interested in the movie, she gives up trying to keep up with the closed captioning and resorts to the running commentary. If there aren’t any Klingons and aliens to poke fun at, she’s more than happy to focus on hairstyles and clothing and all the characters in general.
We have had some good movie nights … if the mood and the movie are right, it can be very enjoyable watching a movie with mom. But it doesn’t happen very often. Most of our movie watching happens after she’s gone to bed at night, but there are other chores to do then, so movie night doesn’t happen too often.
One evening I found out that Galaxy Quest was coming on. Hot dog! I haven’t watched that in years. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a spoof that pokes fun at shows like Star Trek … it’s about a group of actors who star in a TV series, Galaxy Quest. At a fan convention, where all the fans are dressed like the TV characters, real aliens show up and take the actors into actual outer space to help them fight an enemy, because the aliens think the show and the characters are real ... not TV shows, but historical documents.
The movie has a superb cast (for my generation at least) – Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub – and it is fun, fun, fun! Life is always better when you don’t take yourself nor your own opinions too seriously, and being able to have a good laugh at yourself is smart and can keep life in perspective. This movie takes jabs at sci-fi fandom, too, but I doubt that any Trekkies were harmed in the process.
So chores be damned … I’m relaxing with a movie tonight!
Then I thought, Uh oh … there’s someone else in the audience who’s not so fun to watch with … I don’t care! I’ll just tune her out and enjoy my movie!
But as I was turning it on, I thought I ought to prepare her … “Mom, I’m going to watch a movie tonight. It’s one of my favorites and I think you might enjoy it, too" … and I proceeded to tell her a little about it. She said that was fine, that she’d watch, too, and – knock me over with a feather – she liked it! Partly I think it was because she recognized most of the cast, and partly it was because I warned her there would be strange-looking things and people, so be prepared.
Then we found out that 3 of the very first Star Trek movies were coming on … she watched two of those, too! And liked them! Amazing!
The only hiccup we had was through the last half of the first movie when I had to get my phone out and convince her that was a much younger William Shatner than she’s seen lately, and not Tim Allen.
I seriously doubt she always knew what was going on, but it didn’t matter. We laughed and had fun … I got a night off from fretting over life and took a walk down memory lane. There’s nothing quite like taking a break from the daily drudge to re-charge.
That night I went to bed with Star Trek on the brain … and like it was all planned, the next day Facebook threw me a curve …