As a seminary student, I got into the habit of watching episodes of Star Trek Voyager when I was under stress. I told my roommate that Star Trek made me think. She probably thought I was making a fine excuse for my Voyager addiction. What fun I had when my leadership class spent a class period analyzing the group dynamics and communication skills from an episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation, in which Captain Jean-Luc Picard is stranded on a planet alone with an alien and no universal translator.
Star Trek does make me think. I am, of course, accustomed to looking for lessons in story--that is what pastors and Bible teachers do. It is also what good writers do: use story to communicate things that are important or help people think about things that are too big for everyday conversation.
Here is a place for the reflections that come from those stories--because in reality watching and reading Star Trek, for me, is not just a way to escape stress. It is a way to give myself space to think.
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