“Tickle us, do we not laugh

prick us, do we not bleed

and wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

The juxtaposition of Starfleet’s finest captain, James T Kirk, the paramount of human exploration and accomplishment in space, with the arch enemy Chang (with Chang doing the taunting muttering the human author Shakespeare under his breath) is simply brilliantly executed. Chang:

“Our revels now are ended, Kirk”

as he fires a volley of torpedos at the Enterprise, inflicting significant damage. Reveling in this momentary victory, he bursts out:

“Cry ‘havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war”

Of course, as in all Star Trek storylines, the Enterprise must have the last, and final, blow. Chang, in the moments before his destruction, concedes victory:

“To be,

or

not to be”

There are other appearances of Shakespeare throughout the TV series and films. This site: Shakespeare and Star Trek does a good job of listing most of the references. But it isn’t until we get to the Star Trek: The Next Generation series that we learn the new captain of the Enterprise, Jean Luc Picard, has a particular fondness for the ancient literary genius. A rather poignant relationship develops between Capt. Picard and his second officer, an android named Data. In the episode “The Most Toys”, we see a red, leather-bound book that at first glance is the size of a Bible, being carefully lifted out of a drawer after it is presumed that Data has died. The book had been a gift from Picard, and later in the episode we see Picard reading from it.

“He was a man, take him for all in all: I shall not look upon his like again.”

Even the greatest resource for Star Trek trivia, Memory Alpha could not precisely identify the edition of Shakespeare’s collected works represented by the mysterious leather-bound book. I decided to endeavour to find this book and acquire it used, if I could.

Where did I look first? Why Amazon.com of course. Also, Ebay and Barnes and Noble booksellers. The first thing I discovered is that there are a lot of publishers who have printed a collection of William Shakespeare. Some contain just his sonnets, others just the plays. There are quite a few that boast being the “complete” works of Wm Shakespeare. They were available in paperback and hard cover, even library versions. I did find two leather bindings, but they were essentially hard cover with padded leather over it.

I then took my search to some of the used booksellers that are lesser known, but useful if one is a college student looking for a bargain textbook – like abebooks.com and alibris.com. Still no results bore any resemblance to the mystery book in the show.

Then I found it in a shop that is located in Ireland. http://www.rareandrecent.com. Oh, you won’t find it there now. I bought it with my birthday money. Pictures will be provided when it arrives in a few weeks. *so excited*

So NPR ran a story, rather an interview, with Eric Weiner just as his new book, “Man Seeks God: My Flirtation With the Divine”, hit bookstore shelves. In it, he tells the story of his own trip around the world in an effort to understand the devout faithful. He counts himself among an offshoot of atheist – the Questor. Among other things, he defines Questor as one who values the question more than the answer. It is no longer sufficient to be a skeptic, however. The Questor seeks the value in “the religious experience”. From Weiner’s perspective, “belief” is not what makes religion worthy of his consideration. What counts are the actions of people who take steps to participate in a religious community, and the religious or ritualistic experiences that touch the senses and stir the spirit. He also expresses surprise to discover many devout people who still have doubts, and are comfortable with that doubt, content with the mysteries and, in some cases, inconsistencies of their faith.

Eric Weiner’s descriptions remind me of TV’s Fox Mulder of the 80s show “The X Files”.

Fox Mulder in "The X Files"

In the end, Eric Weiner expressed a small amount of envy with the fact that so many have “found their home” so to speak. Throughout the book, he seemed to want to settle on a particular faith, on one God, as though a sudden realization of belonging was just as simple as finding just the right hat for one’s head. I found myself wondering if he truly understood what may have been at work in each person’s life to bring them to faith. I respected him for undertaking the journey and for attempting to comprehend the complexities of each. The compassionate parts of me wanted to reach out to him, encouraging him to continue.

To use another Hollywood analogy, Mr. Weiner was in a kind of Ollivander’s Shop (aka Harry Potter) trying out different wands as a non-magic-user. He went through the motions of using the wands, but nothing happened. In the films young Harry Potter, new to the magical world, was full of wonder and, at the same time, trepidation. Though just a young man, he entered Ollivander’s shop with the sense that something Very Important was about to happen.

Ollivander's Wand Shop

Belief goes way beyond mere intellectual thought. One can read a statement that is presented as fact and make a judgment of “true” or “false” regarding the statement. But mere acceptance of a truth does not constitute belief. I think it boils down to asking oneself, and then answering a simple question: “Do I have a soul?” Even though questions can be, in and of themselves, a sort of end unto themselves, in order to “be religious” one must start with a few core beliefs. The first is an acknowledgment of the existence of a soul. The second is an acknowledgment of a connection between the intellect, the heart, the body and the soul. Here, in a nutshell, is at the core of all religious experience and faith.

So faith is a combination of the following:
The mind contains the awareness of and conceptualization of faith. One receives the concept of God (or gods) as a gift from the very deity we seek to understand. It is a personal connection that is made on the level of core understanding and conscious thought. We cannot create the connection between our body and soul and that cosmic, spiritual being (or beings) on our own. As Ollivander said, “the wand chooses the wizard”. As a person seeks God, God seeks the person. The trick is to recognize when we have found “the One” and when the “One” finds us.

At the same time our mind begins to form a concept and basic definitions of faith, our soul awakens to a presence that transcends time and space. The soul is the part of us that we least understand, but in faith, we allow it to grow – yes grow – and this is the conduit through which God dwells. Again, this is true across all faiths and religious communities. Each religious tradition has its own sense of “how” this growth is accomplished. But one thing is clear. It is personal, powerful, and brings a person to a whole new level of existence. But one must be open to it. Deny the soul and one will never “find” God.

Allowing God to reach us takes courage and openness to new possibilities, no doubt. It also may lead to our denial of “self” – this notion that we are somehow muddling through life alone and beholden to no one, and no thing. Until one realizes the benefits of a God-indwelled soul, one finds it difficult to accept that religious belief may somehow cause our path to shift to places we’d really rather not go. But isn’t all growth uncomfortable? We don’t want to be “forced” somewhere we do not want to go – and are afraid to be compelled to do something we’d rather not do. Fear is the ultimate obstacle to fully realizing the joys of our faith.

Finally, the heart is the motivation behind every action, and the body is the vessel that acts. If the mind and soul are united, then we must consciously decide to act on that understanding of belief. The heart of a person is also part emotion. We allow ourselves to be stirred to action by things like compassion, love, and desire to please. All people of faith find action to be most effective when thoughtful purpose, unity with soul, and heartfelt emotions form the basis of our actions. Sure there can be some fear – and doubt. We are only human, after all. But when we choose to step out in faith, with the courage of conviction in our soul, this is when we do great things as people.

New faith requires a person to possess a childlike wonder in accepting new possibilities and impossibilities, an open mind, an awakening soul, and a heartfelt desire to not merely seek but to find. Perhaps most importantly, faith comes when a person admits a certain vulnerability. One chooses to risk bending one’s will, even denying ego altogether. Complete acceptance and serenity await for those who find that balance. I wish the Eric Weiners of the world all the best in finding what they seek.

If you have not read through Book 7 and plan to see the upcoming movie, stop here and do not read further unless you don’t mind finding out exactly what remains for Harry Potter and friends to destroy in order to be rid of Lord Voldemort once and for all.

In the world of magic, there is a children’s story about 3 wizards that manage to cheat death. Not just avoid death, but literally… Death himself was not happy these 3 had managed to escape. But still impressed with their skill, Death offered a reward to each of the brothers. The rewards were named the Deathly Hallows and were: a wand more powerful than any other wand (The Elder Wand), the second was a resurection stone (thought to have been the Sorcerer’s Stone that was destroyed by Dumbledore in the 1st movie), the 3rd was a Cloak of Invisibility that could hide even from Death itself. The latter was a gift to Harry Potter (presumably by Dumbledore but the benefactor did not say who he or she was). So far the movies have stayed away from the dark secret of Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Perhaps the filmmakers do not want to tarnish the reputation of their symbol of everything that is good.

But in Book 7 we discover that Harry’s mentor and figure of greatness did indeed have a serious flaw. At some point in his career he became aware of the Horcruxes of Voldemort but he was also seduced by the mystique of the Deathly Hallows. Possessing them was something Dumbledore had decided to pursue. So when he found out about the Horcruxes, it became clear to him that his pursuit would need to be one… or the other. He chose to pursue the 3 objects, not entirely out of greed but out of a desire to prolong his life and to do good. But this decision only means someone else will have to go after the Horcruxes. That someone is just-turned-17 Harry Potter.

To make matters worse, Voldemort discovers that the Elder Wand was buried with Dumbledore after his death. So he steals the wand and prepares to put an end to his greatest enemy… Harry Potter himself. But a wand that is stolen can sometimes be unpredictable.

The so-called Horcrux is an item, or creature that becomes a vessel for a portion of one’s soul. Basically in the world of Harry Potter and the magical community written by J.K. Rowling, a witch or wizard can achieve a kind of immortality by preserving a part of his or her soul. This feat requires one to commit an act of murder and with some enchantment (spell) a part of the soul leaves the body and enters the desired vessel. It’s all pretty fantastic stuff and you just have to use your imagination. Suffice to say one gets the feeling of sheer evil to even consider such an act. Also, one is never entirely the same afterward. Imagine only being half a person, the rest a mindless, soulless zombie-like thing…

Our main villain is Thomas Marvolo Riddle, who hates his non-magical name and calls himself Lord Voldemort. Not only does he create one Horcrux, but in fact creates 6 of them. The information - contained in several discussions and blogs - is not entirely true about what these horcruxes are.

The first horcrux was Tom Riddle’s diary (a book that Harry Potter destroyed in his first year at Hogwart’s School)

The second to be destroyed was a ring that was a Gaunt family heirloom (owned by Marvolo Gaunt and passed down the male line) but stolen by Tom Riddle. Tom’s connection to the Gaunt family was his mother, Merope Gaunt.

The third to be destroyed was a locket that Harry and Dumbledore sought during Harry’s sixth year at Hogwart’s. Alas, the object they found was indeed a fake. But Harry along with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, found the other locket. (Book and movie differ on the details of where it was found.) The Horcrux was a locket that had belonged to one of the founders of Hogwarts (Salazar Slytherin). The fake belonged to Regulus Black, one of the pureblood families of the wizard world.

This brings us up to the current state of affairs and without giving details the remaining Horcruxes are:

A cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff (another of Hogwart’s 4 founders)

A tiara belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw (another founder)

Nagini (the snake under Voldemort’s command and never seen far from him)

Lastly Harry Potter himself contains the 7th “piece” of soul. This last part gets a bit fuzzy because Voldemort names Harry “as his equal”; Dumbledore and Harry never say it aloud but both of them suspect that Harry will need to sacrifice himself in order to destroy all that remains of Voldemort. Since the movies have diverged from Rowling’s version of many of these finer “details” it may be that this too will get special treatment by Hollywood. But according to Rowling, Harry became a Horcrux the night his parents were murdered. A fact that may have been unknown to Lord Voldemort himself (at least not consciously).

Voldemort had managed to use 3 of the 4 founders of Hogwarts to aid him with immortality. The one which could not, would not, suffice was the only remaining artifact of Godric Gryffindor and head of Gryffindor House, to which Harry Potter belongs. That artifact is the sword of Gryffindor. Ironically it was used to kill the Basilisk (a serpentlike beast living under the castle at Hogwart’s school). The sword, having been used to defeat that mythical creature, absorbed much of the power of the Basilisk’s blood. In so doing, it became a useful method for destroying the remaining Horcruxes.

Suffice to say that Harry, Ron and Hermione will need to break in (and out) of Gringott’s Bank as well as get past a dragon in the final movie. But the real test, and final battle, will take them back to Hogwart’s School where good and evil will face one another; some who were thought to be evil are in fact, the most courageous and honorable. And some will give their lives. But this modern mythological tale of heroism promises to be very satisfactory indeed on the big screen.